It is 9 p.m. in Moscow on Sunday, July 21, when Joe Biden announces his withdrawal from the race for the American presidency. The news goes around the world and does not spare Russia. In the process, the Kremlin propagandists change their program to focus on the resounding arrival of the new Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris. Initially quite superficial, the criticism of the current vice president of the United States focuses on her laughter, as in the show Vesti at 8 p.m.which shows Kamala Harris laughing. On this basis, Valery Solovyov, presenter of the show that bears his name, on the Russia 1 channel, allows himself to call her a “crazy” and a “happy idiot”.
Very quickly, much more violent comments concerning Kamala Harris’ gender and skin color are broadcast on the air. Also on Solovyov’s show, political scientist Andrei Sidorov says that “Kamala, with the nuclear button, is more dangerous than a monkey with a grenade.”
Concerns and conspiracy theories
Despite these racist and sexist mockeries, the atmosphere is still tense on Russian TV sets, because Donald Trump will no longer face Joe Biden – whom the Russian media loved to hate. Clearly, the Republican candidate is Moscow’s preferred candidate, he who seems ready to let Russia seize Donbass and Crimea in Ukraine, according to an article in Washington Post published in April. Vladimir Putin had also declared that he believed that “Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sincerely wanted to end the war in Ukraine.”
According to Russian MP Oleg Matveychev, Trump has lost his ideal opponent. During the broadcast 60 minutesMonday, July 22, he worried: “Trump now has no assets! Before, he could easily attack Biden’s health, now he has nothing to attack.” Calling Kamala Harris “the devil in his purest form”, the congressman regrets that “the discussions around the age of President Biden or the assassination attempt against Mr. Trump are relegated to yesterday’s news”.
The attempted assassination of the Republican candidate during his rally in Pennsylvania on July 14 was widely covered by Russian media. On TV channels, Russian propaganda did everything to demonstrate that the event was a consequence of the “atmosphere created by the Biden administration” and that attempts to assassinate presidents are a “tradition” of the American political system.
The same conspiracy theory was put forward in Biden’s choice to withdraw. On the federal channel NTV on Monday morning, the presenter said that “the Americans are now waiting for the 81-year-old leader to appear in front of the television cameras and explain the situation to them himself,” implying that Biden was removed without his consent. Even Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, quipped during Valery Solovyov’s talk show: “Does Joe Biden even know that he is no longer a candidate?”
The Kremlin in restraint
Many political commentators, however, are skeptical about the changes that Kamala Harris could bring, deliberately downplaying any impact she might have. Most of the “Z” bloggers, so-called because of their support for the war in Ukraine, have largely avoided the topic or assured that “nothing will change,” as has political scientist Sergei Markov. Close to power, Markov has stressed in six separate posts that Kamala Harris’s “leftist views, lack of charisma” and “image of a puppet of the deep state” will certainly not be appreciated by Americans.
The Kremlin, for its part, has reacted with more restraint. “There are four months left until the election, this is a long period during which a lot can change. We must be patient and carefully observe the course of events,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Telegram. In any case, between now and the election in November, Kamala Harris will remain at the center of Russian news.
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