Putin Ally’s ‘Nuke Over Siberia’ Warning Resurfaces Amid Satellite Threat

Controversial remarks made by a top Kremlin propagandist that suggested testing an atomic bomb over Siberia have resurfaced on social media amid a U.S. warning about Russia’s space and nuclear capabilities.

A clip of Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled media organization RT, speaking on state TV in October 2023 has been re-shared on X, formerly Twitter, by the Daily Beast’s Julia Davis, in light of a warning on Wednesday from a U.S. official of a “serious national security threat.”

ABC News first reported on Wednesday that the warning came from Representative Mike Turner, Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ intelligence committee, saying that it was in relation to a Russian space-based nuclear weapon that could potentially be used on satellites.

Newsweek contacted the White House and Russia’s foreign ministry for comment by email.

“ICYMI last year,” Davis posted on X late on Wednesday, linking to Simonyan’s October comments, in which she suggested Russia “conduct a thermonuclear explosion hundreds of kilometers above our own territory somewhere in Siberia” to demonstrate its strength.

Should Russia carry out this test, “nothing scary would happen on the land, there will be no nuclear winter everyone is afraid of. There won’t be horrific radiation that wlll kill everyone,” she said.

Simonyan, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested that such an explosion would “destroy all radio electronics” and “everything digital” including “all of the satellites”, cameras and phones. She claimed life would revert back to how it was in 1993 and that she’d be glad to live in a world with fewer gadgets.

“At least I will no longer have to explain to my kids why everyone else has gadgets, except for them, she said.

For Russia, a “nuclear ultimatum” is “becoming inevitable, with no alternative,” said Simonyan. “They will not back down until they feel a lot of pain or until they realize they’re about to be in a lot of pain.”

“Oh. So Simonyan was serious when she talked about blowing up a nuclear bomb in space above Siberia?,” asked X user Vlada Knowlton on Wednesday.

The Kremlin in October 2023 rejected Simonyan’s suggestion, saying that Russia has not “left the [international] regime of refusing nuclear tests.”

“This has not happened until now, so I don’t think that such discussions are possible now from an official point of view,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement at the time.

In issuing his warning on Wednesday, Turner said the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee “has made available to all members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat.”

“I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat,” Turner said.

Current and former U.S. officials have said the nuclear weapon was not in orbit, Reuters reported.

A Russian foreign ministry official warned in October 2023 that Moscow could shoot down Western commercial satellites should they be used to assist Ukraine in the war,

Vladimir Ermakov, head of the foreign ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, said quasi-civilian Western satellites could be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.

“We have consistently drawn the attention of the international community to this dangerous trend, which goes beyond the harmless use of space technology, clearly manifested during the events in Ukraine,” Ermakov said.

“Obviously, the United States and its allies are not fully aware that such activities actually constitute indirect participation in armed conflicts.”

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via [email protected].