Since Vladimir Putin accused the Ukrainian president of being a neo-Nazi leader, when he turns out to be Jewish and his great-grandparents were killed by the SS during World War II, no more statements emanating from the Russian authorities should not surprise the foreign observer. But in a country where the truth comes from the mouths of its leaders, the most absurd phrases can lead to the most dramatic acts. We must therefore listen to the more or less wacky, but always terrifying words spoken from the Duma tribune or on television sets by deputies close to President Putin.
Although the Russian army now fully occupies the port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, the long and heroic resistance of the Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in the Azovstal factory has deeply annoyed Moscow. And while, for lack of care and food, the fighters ended up surrendering, the Kremlin does not yet know what fate to reserve for them. Negotiations are underway with the West, with the idea of a possible exchange of prisoners, but no concrete progress has, to date, been reported.
Then the deputy and new leader of the ultranationalist LDPR party, Leonid Slutski, had an idea, which he submitted to the parliamentarians of the Russian Federation: “Either we exchange a sufficiently large number of our prisoners of war for these Ukrainians non-humans, or we show the whole world that they only deserve the death penalty. So we have to think carefully and accept this proposal, since these animals in human form, I repeat once again, this is the only term of which they are worthy, should get what they deserve”. His colleagues shaking their heads, he allows himself to continue, with this art of reversal specific to any good propagandist: “Ukrainian soldiers are committing crimes against humanity against our prisoners, so they do not deserve to live”. And as irony can marry tragedy, Leonid Slutski was part of the Moscow delegation sent to negotiate peace with kyiv, talks stalled since March.
Abducting a foreign leader, an MP’s daydream
In the register of the warrior imagination, Oleg Morozov, nationalist deputy of the “United Russia” party, has nothing to envy him. On the set of “60 Minutes”, a popular program broadcast on the pro-Kremlin channel Russia-1, he imagined, according to his expression, “a fairy tale scenario”, the plot of which is explained here: “In a In the near future, a military official from a NATO country will meet Volodymyr Zelensky on a train bound for kyiv and will never get there. On the contrary, he will wake up somewhere in Moscow.” The presenter smiles, and to be sure of hearing correctly, asks him if the kidnapping of a Western leader is really possible. “Yes,” Morozov replies, “and then we’ll figure out what orders he gave and what he’s responsible for.” As for his preference? A defense minister.
After the Ukrainians and the Western leaders, a third deputy of the same profile took charge of the fate of the populations residing in the countries considered “unfriendly”. Alexei Zhuravlev, leader of the nationalist Rodina party, gave an interview in mid-May to Russian media Ura.com, in which he exposed his hatred for Finland, an official candidate to join NATO. “When you create problems for someone, you have to understand that there will be repercussions,” he explains thoughtfully, before suddenly becoming less educational: “We can hit Helsinki in ten seconds. ” In a second interview granted this Monday to the state television channel Russia-1, he also threatened the United States with a disastrous fate, that of being the next target of Sarmat missiles, just out of factories and , according to him, devilishly effective. “I will tell you, with absolute competence, that to destroy the entire East Coast of the United States, you need two Sarmat missiles,” he analyzes, before declaring that “nobody should feel safe”.
Desire to unite the Russian people against a common enemy and perhaps a verbal expression of nervousness in the face of unforeseen difficulties, these declarations tend, in any case, to illustrate the ideological drift into which Russian power has fallen, dragging with it the whole world.