Russia is still dealing with the fallout from the stunning demise of the head of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and his associates, all of whom recently perished in a fiery plane crash. This week, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that several possible causes are being considered—including the possibility that it was a “deliberate atrocity.”
The same propagandists who previously asserted that Prigozhin must die for organizing an embarrassing mutiny that shattered the illusion of Vladimir Putin’s tight grip on power have sharply changed their course once their wish came true. They are now desperately spinning their wheels, attempting to impugn foreign powers for organizing the incident—and even predicting that Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine (nicknamed “General Armageddon”) might be next.
On Thursday, Russia’s most prominent propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov, even more pompously predicted that soon there might be another potential victim: former Fox News host and current X (formerly Twitter) podcaster Tucker Carlson. The latest broadcast of The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov featured multiple clips of Carlson’s hysterical predictions, including his claim that the U.S. government is getting ready to go to war with Russia—a war he implied the U.S. would lose.
In a series of clips from Adam Carolla’s YouTube show that were hand-selected for Solovyov’s program, Carlson accused both Republicans and the Democrats of being “insane” and hysterical, predicting that a war between the U.S. and Russia would start next year.
Solovyov theatrically asked, “Who says that? A dead man walking! He sincerely believes that the next step after the accusations and the declaration of impeachment will be an assassination of Trump. But this man, who is currently the most popular English-speaking journalist, signed his own death warrant!”
Solovyov explained the main reason for Tucker’s potential troubles: “They will not forgive him for the fact that he strives to interview our president and post the footage on a platform that has no censorship!” For years, head of RT Margarita Simonyan had promoted the idea of granting Carlson’s long-standing wish to interview Putin. Last Sunday, she again reiterated her plea, describing the fired Fox News host as “the most popular host in the history of the United States” and hoping out loud that someone from the Presidential Administration will hear her message.
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Earlier Thursday morning, Solovyov interviewed Dimitri Simes, the former president and CEO of The Center for the National Interest, a Washington foreign policy think tank that was mentioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Simes told Solovyov that he was previously involved in attempting to help Carlson set up the coveted interview. In one of his recent radio broadcasts, Solovyov mentioned that even actor Steven Seagal was pushing for Carlson to finally get this long-awaited opportunity.
During his evening show, Solovyov predicted dire consequences that would follow Carlson’s persistent attempts to score a sit-down with the Russian president: “I can’t rule out that in the near future, as he is leaving Europe, there will either be an air crash or something will happen to the car in which he will be traveling, or he might eat something that he shouldn’t, maybe his heart will suddenly stop! If I were in his place, I would tell no one of my travel routes.”
The warnings sounded like something that might have been useful to someone like Prigozhin or numerous people who found themselves on the wrong side of Putin and ended up paying the ultimate price. Perhaps they were also useful in attempting to persuade the domestic audiences that Russia is not the only place in turmoil and political assassinations are quite common all over the globe.
Ratcheting up the conspiratorial mood permeating the studio, Solovyov expressly agreed with Carlson’s outlandish predictions of the impending Armageddon. He pontificated, “We are on the verge of a global hot war! It’s unavoidable because it benefits everyone!”
He dramatically added, “These are the end times! We should realize this.”
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