Vladimir Solovyov is called Vladimir Putin’s favorite on Russian TV. The hugely popular Russian presenter is known to be one of the president’s staunchest supporters in the media. From the beginning, he has publicly supported Putin’s war in Ukraine.
That’s why an old clip is now causing a stir on social media. The video is an excerpt from a speech given by Solovyov at the Moscow Art Theater in 2008. There he says something he could hardly have said in 2022.
– There will never be a war between Russia and Ukraine because anyone seriously attempting such an act is a criminal, says the video shared on Twitter by BCC reporter Francis Scarr.
– It must make our country attractive
Solovyov continued the speech:
In the speech, which came six years before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, he believes that Russia needs to make the country so beautiful to live in so that others will voluntarily move to the country.
– We do not need to shout “Crimea is ours,” he said.
– We must continue to make our country so attractive that Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans, Armenians and Georgians want to come here and live in peace with us.
– One of the worst
It may therefore appear that Solovyov has taken a radically different view of the issue since 2008.
Since February he has tried several times to justify Putin’s war. You warned this summer that there would be a massive terrorist attack if NATO continued to help Ukraine and recently last week called for heavy revenge attacks across Ukraine following the bombing of the Kerch bridge. .
He has regularly been called one of the country’s greatest propagandists.
– He has made several such extreme claims in the past. I would say that Solovyov is one of the worst propagandists on Russian television. If not the worst, added Professor Jardar N. Østbø of the Department of Defense Studies VG i mars.
– Coming from above
When Solovyov declared in April that Russia was on its way to a war with NATO, Dagbladet spoke to the head of the department at Kristiania College’s communications department, Ketil Raknes, about propaganda on the state channel.
He then believed that the TV host’s message was orchestrated from above.
– It comes from above. We see the same in Russian newspapers, and there is more and more far-right and nationalist propaganda, she said.
He stressed that war is an important tool for garnering support for the Russian regime.
– History has proved it. Putin fortified himself with the war in Chechnya, and we saw it in the war against Georgia. The 2014 annexation of Crimea is the most popular thing Putin has done, Raknes said.
