Complete cyber warfare, nationally forced disruptions and targeted disruption of internet services – for one of the Kremlin’s best propagandists, all those tactics are a fair game in what she describes as a doomed war against the US
“War [with the U.S.] it is inevitable, “said Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russian state-funded RT and Sputnik, who believes the conflict will erupt when, not if Vladimir Putin conquers more territories in Ukraine.
As Russia’s military build-up on the brink of Ukraine rises, Kremlin loyalists have called for even more bloody aggression and bloodshed in the campaign to annex Ukraine’s Donbas region. The only thing standing in their way, they say, is US support for their besieged neighbor.
The G-7, which includes the United States, issued a joint statement on Monday calling for an end to Russia’s build-up of border troops in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas territory, recalling Russia’s 2014 pre-annexation of Crimea. by deploying two warships in the Black Sea.
On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatened retaliation. “We warn the United States that it will be better to stay away from Crimea and our Black Sea coast. It will be for their own good, “he said.
Climbing was foreshadowed on state television Sunday night with Vladimir Soloviev in weekend. Simonyan explained that the time had come for Russia to prepare for a confrontation against the United States and prophesied a kind of war waged by hacking, forced interruption of Internet access, power outages and a total offensive on the United States. infrastructure.
“I do not think this will be a large-scale hot war, like the Second World War, and I do not think there will be a long cold war. It will be a war of the third type: the cyber war, “said Simonyan.
She warned that – in this theoretical battle – the US will plot to cut off electricity to entire Russian cities. In turn, she speculated, Moscow will be able to force an interruption in Florida or Harlem in New York at some point.
“In the conventional war, we could defeat Ukraine in two days,” Simonyan said, “but it will be another kind of war. We’ll do it later [the U.S.] will respond by turning off the power to [the Russian city] Voronezh, ”she said.
The top RT editor stated that “[Russia] must be prepared for this war, which is inevitable and, of course, will begin in Ukraine, “arguing that the Kremlin is” invincible in terms of conventional warfare, but forget about conventional warfare … it will be an infrastructure war, and here we have many vulnerabilities. ”
Its solution is Stalin-type measures to eliminate “vulnerabilities” in the run-up to another escalation, stressing the need for a government-controlled, piracy-resistant internet. “We don’t have a sovereign internet yet, but God willing, we will,” she said.
She wholeheartedly supported a suggestion by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultranationalist leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, who argued that all Russian opposition should be eliminated by May 1, 2021. With the opposition leader Alexei Navalny on hunger strike – and suffering from a serious health condition after being denied proper medical treatment – the Kremlin seems to be firmly fixed on that course.
Simonyan said that once Russia reduced its vulnerabilities and made Putin’s opposition powerless – which he said could happen in a few months – the Kremlin would finally be ready to annex the eastern region of Ukraine.
“We were agitated and even asked to take Donbas. We have to solve our vulnerabilities as fast as we can and then we can do whatever we want, ”she boldly proclaimed. The host, Vladimir Soloviev, wholeheartedly agreed: “We only lose if we do nothing.” He argued that by absorbing parts of Ukraine – or the entire country – Russia would be able to move the area of American influence away from its borders.
Being one of the Kremlin’s most popular propagandists, Margarita Simonyan is almost known to the Russian president and has received several awards directly from Putin. After accepting such an award in 2019, Simonyan thanked Putin “for the most important reward in life … this honor of serving one’s homeland.”
His “service” involved misinformation operations led by RT and Sputnik, which aim to influence the 2016 US presidential election, which he often brags about by including his name in various US intelligence reports.
Russia’s recent cyberspace activities appear to serve as good practices for Simonyan’s “inevitable war.”
Last year, six Russian intelligence officers were charged by the United States with using the world’s most destructive malware to force disruptions in Ukraine and damage the critical infrastructure of several countries, resulting in losses of nearly $ 1 billion. On Monday, hackers operating in Russia targeted France’s home education platform.
The Kremlin is ready to step up its offensive against the West, but fears further retaliation. The idea of a bulletproof “sovereign internet” – completely under the control of the government within Russia’s borders – is already on the books, and Moscow has introduced the idea as a precautionary measure against retaliatory hacking attempts in other nations.
Simonyan argued that Russia would certainly be able to exploit US “catastrophic” educational standards and referred to US military analysts and specialists as incompetent and stupid. She laughed heartily at the news that more than 200,000 members of the US service had suffered hearing loss due to defective earplugs.
“We can never reach an agreement [Americans]Simonyan said, arguing that Russia could just as easily defeat the United States in a cyber war.
She added, mockingly, “We don’t even need nuclear weapons.”