Putin Ally Makes Nuclear Threats to 2 NATO Countries

Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov has suggested launching nuclear strikes on two members of the NATO military alliance.

Solovyov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a state TV host, issued the warnings during two separate broadcasts of his shows Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, and Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov. The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis shared excerpts of the broadcasts on X, formerly Twitter. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

The notion that Russia could strike NATO members in response to the aid and weapons they’ve provided Ukraine in the ongoing war has been floated by Solovyov, and many other Russian officials, regularly since the conflict began in February 2022.

Putin has said since September 2022 that Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its “territorial integrity,” declaring that “this is not a bluff.” More recently, in February, he warned during his annual state of the nation address in Moscow that his “strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness.”

“Meanwhile in Russia: Vladimir Solovyov assured fellow propagandists that none of them will be tried after the war is over, because by then, the British will have been eradicated through nuclear strikes,” wrote Davis of the first state TV clip.

“Meanwhile in Russia: Easter would be incomplete without Vladimir Solovyov’s nuclear threats to France,” she wrote in another post, sharing the broadcast.

In the first state TV clip, Vladimir Kornilov, a political scientist, began by saying that the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph “openly wrote that the Russian people are responsible. After the war ends, absolutely everyone has to be tried, including Patriarch Kirill.”

Solovyov interjected: “Pardon, who is going to judge us?”

“The British,” Kornilov responded.

Solovyov continued by issuing his first nuclear warning. “The country that by that point in time will be buried under a radioactive wave?” he said.

Kornilov said he hopes “it won’t get to a nuclear war.”

“It won’t, the radioactive tsunami will just wipe it away,” Solovyov replied.

The Russian Orthodox Church, headed by Patriarch Kirill, a Putin ally, recently approved a document that deems Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a “Holy War.”

In the second state TV broadcast, Solovyov criticized Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo for saying over the weekend that Russian and Belarusian athletes “were not welcome” at this year’s Olympics, which is being held in the French capital.

“I want to remind this unpleasant ugly Nazi beast that today is the 210th anniversary of the Russian army entering Paris. Both back then and now, we couldn’t care less whether or not you are glad to see us. Whenever we need to destroy all of you, we will do it,” said Solovyov.

He added: “So Paris, you don’t want to welcome our athletes? Welcome our hypersonics! Fast, reliable, and very unpleasant.”

Putin warned in February that “Russia won’t let anyone interfere in its internal affairs.”

His remarks came after French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that NATO members could send ground troops to Ukraine. Other NATO allies, including the U.S., ruled out doing so after Macron’s suggestion.

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