Total cyber warfare, forced blackouts across the country, and the specific disruption of Internet services: for one of the Kremlin’s top propagandists, all of these tactics are a fair play in what she describes as a war to come against the United States.
“War [with the U.S.] it is inevitable, “said Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russian state-funded RT and Sputnik, who believes the conflict will erupt when, if not, Vladimir Putin takes over more territory in Ukraine. .
As Russia’s military army gathers at the gates of Ukraine, Kremlin loyalists have been urging even more obvious aggression and bloodshed in the campaign to annex the Ukrainian region of the Donbass. They say the only thing that stands in the way is U.S. support for its besieged neighbor.
The G-7 nations club, which includes the United States, issued a joint statement on Monday demanding an end to the build-up of Russian troops on the border with the disputed territory of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, which recalls the accumulation prior to the annexation of Crimea to Russia. 2014. The United States underlined these words 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 for them to stay away from Crimea and our Black Sea coast. It will be for your own good, ”he said.
Climbing was foreshadowed on state television Sunday evening with Vladimir Soloviev the weekend. Simonyan explained that it was time for Russia to prepare to face the United States and prophesied a kind of war driven by hacking, the forced disruption of Internet access, the shutdown of power supplies, and a total offensive against the United States. infrastructures.
“I don’t think this is a large-scale hot war, like World War II, and I don’t think there’s a long Cold War. It will be a war of the third type: the cyber war “, said Simonyan.
He warned that in this theoretical battle, the United States would plot to cut off electricity to entire Russian cities. In turn, he speculated, Moscow would be able to force a shutdown in Florida or Harlem, New York, in one fell swoop.
“In the conventional war, we could defeat Ukraine in two days,” Simonyan said, “but it will be another kind of war. We will, and then [the U.S.] will respond by turning off the power to [the Russian city] Voronezh, ”he said.
The top RT editor stated that “[Russia] must be prepared for this war, which is inevitable, and of course it will start 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 we have a lot of vulnerabilities here. “
Its solution consists of Stalin-type measures to eliminate “vulnerabilities” in the face of a new escalation, emphasizing the need for a government-controlled Internet pirate-proof. “We don’t have a sovereign internet yet, but God willing, we will,” he said.
He wholeheartedly endorsed a suggestion by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultranationalist leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, who argued that all opposition in Russia should be eliminated on May 1, 2021. With the leader of the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny on hunger strike and severely ill health after refusing proper medical treatment; the Kremlin seems to be firmly set in this direction.
Simonyan argued that once Russia downplayed its vulnerabilities and left Putin’s opposition powerless – which he argued could happen in a matter of months – the Kremlin will be ready to annex the eastern region of Ukraine.
“I have been agitating and even demanding that we take Donbas. We have to correct our vulnerabilities as quickly as we can, and then we can do whatever we want, ”he proclaimed bravely. The host, Vladimir Soloviev, wholeheartedly agreed: “We only lose if we do nothing.” He argued that by absorbing parts of Ukraine — or the whole country — Russia would be able to eliminate the zone of American influence farther from its borders.
As one of the Kremlin’s most valued propagandists, Margarita Simonyan is notoriously close to the Russian president and has received multiple awards directly from Putin. After accepting one of these awards in 2019, Simonyan thanked Putin for “the most important reward of a lifetime … this honor of serving one’s own country.”
His “service” has involved misinformation operations driven by RT and Sputnik aimed at influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which often boasts of including his name in various U.S. intelligence reports.
Russia’s recent cyberspace activities seem to serve as good practices for the “inevitable war” foreshadowed by Simonyan.
Last year, six Russian intelligence officers were charged by the US with using the world’s most destructive malware to force blackouts in Ukraine and damaging critical infrastructure in several countries, which resulted in close losses. of $ 1 billion. On Monday, hackers operating in Russia headed to France’s home education platform.
The Kremlin is ready to intensify its offensive against the West, but is afraid of retaliation that would follow. The idea of a bullet-proof “sovereign Internet” —it is fully controlled by the government on Russia’s borders — is already in the books, as Moscow has introduced the idea as a precautionary measure against retaliatory piracy attempts by others. nations.
Simonyan argued that Russia will surely be able to exploit U.S. “catastrophic” educational standards and referred to U.S. military analysts and specialists as incompetent and stupid. He laughed heartily at the news that more than 200,000 members of the U.S. service experienced hearing loss due to faulty plugs.
“We can never reach an agreement [Americans]Simonyan said, arguing that Russia, on the other hand, can just as easily defeat the US in a cyberspace war.
He added, mockingly, “We don’t even need nuclear weapons.”