Russian state TV urges strikes against key NATO capital

Political pundits on a Russian state TV broadcast recently discussed the prospect of Moscow launching a military strike on Berlin, Germany.

“We can destroy Berlin from Kaliningrad,” television host Vladimir Solovyov said on the program, referring to how the western exclave of Kaliningrad is Russia’s closest territory to Germany.

Solovyov, a prominent Kremlin propagandist and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is known for making controversial comments. Last year, he warned of a new world war that would see the West pitted against Muslims all over the world.

He has also said Moscow should unleash a nuclear attack on any country that would attempt to detain Putin over the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March for alleged war crimes, as well as made multiple calls for Russia to make use of its nuclear capabilities against the countries that back Ukraine.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, shared a clip of the discussion about Berlin from Solovyov’s show on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.

Gerashchenko’s clip begins with Andrey Sidorov—dean of world politics at Moscow State University and a frequent guest on Solovyov’s program—discussing a hypothetical conflict between Russia and NATO.

“In my opinion, since the first strike, NATO always wrote how they will strike Kaliningrad, we will immediately have a situation in which we use missiles,” Sidorov said, per Gerashchenko’s translated captions. “And we use missiles against the main enemy.”

“And who is the main enemy now?” Solovyov asked, before stating Russia could strike Berlin from Kaliningrad.

“Our main enemy, as you know, is across the ocean,” Sidorov replied, seemingly referring to the United States.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Friday night for comment.

“There is nothing more to do in Berlin,” Solovyov continued. “I’ll write, ‘I’m satisfied with the ruins of Reichstag.’ That’ll be my approach.”

The Reichstag is a historic legislative government building in Berlin.

Germany has been a strong ally of Ukraine in the war that Putin launched in February 2022, and Solovyov’s recent on-air comment is not the first time he has directed his ire toward Germany. In October, he suggested during a broadcast of his show that Germany would someday exist “under a Russian flag.”

Solovyov also ranted about German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in November after she announced her country would not only continue giving aid to Ukraine through the winter, but Berlin was also planning to see its support for its ally “massively expanded for next year.”

After calling Baerbock a “crazy fool,” Solovyov referred to the government official as a “German idiot” and stated, “Berlin will burn and there will be a Victory Banner over the Reichstag!”