The Kremlin’s mouthpieces are whip-sawing between excitement and trepidation over forthcoming US decisions.
By Julia Davis, for CEPA
Russia’s propaganda machine has its doubts about President Trump and whether he will deliver Ukraine’s hoped-for capitulation. And yet this tantalizing dream continues to course through every fiber of its being.
The language of information warfare may be crude, but there’s a recognition that after three years of stubborn popular resistance, Ukraine cannot simply be told to give up (because it won’t.)
So the Kremlin’s selective truth tellers have other ideas in mind. Removing President Zelenskyy and his administration is seen as an excellent first step, and here they see signs of hope.
On February 5, the state TV show 60 Minutes headlined its evening broadcast “Together Against Zelenskyy,” with the opening shot featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump. This simple postcard image was indicative of Moscow’s hope that Trump and his envoy Lt. Gen. (rtd) Keith Kellogg can be used as tools to unseat the Ukrainian leader.
Russia’s experts and pundits have long seen Zelenskyy as a major obstacle to the reimposition of colonial rule in Ukraine, and have been vocally calling for him to be murdered since the very beginning of Putin’s all-out invasion.
Russia hopes Trump’s presidency will offer another opportunity to do away with Zelenskyy, who has survived several Russian assassination plots and become a symbol of Ukraine’s stubborn resistance. Zelenskyy was elected in 2019, but the 2024 presidential vote was postponed because of the war.
So there has been much excitement about a Kellogg interview on February 1 where he called for elections in Ukraine. Some, Putin’s mouthpieces among them, interpreted this as a call for an immediate or at least imminent vote. The calculus here is easy enough to understand — they hope the electoral process would prove chaotic given a fifth of the country is occupied, nearly 7 million have left and another 4 million are internally displaced. And of course they hope Zelenskyy would lose.
State media commentary may be getting ahead of itself, not for the first time. It also reveals the Kremlin’s true agenda — no negotiation, only capitulation.
Decorated state TV host Vladimir Solovyov, whose program, The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, ranks in the top three most watched shows in the country — sharing the spotlight with 60 Minutes — repeatedly reiterated that Russia is not interested in negotiations.
The same views are constantly being presented on state television, where experts and hosts rail against the very idea of negotiations or a ceasefire — even if it takes Russia 100 years to conquer all of Ukraine. Instead, they hope that Putin can persuade Trump to halt weapon deliveries to Ukraine, which would considerably shorten the war.
Getting rid of Zelenskyy would be a huge bonus. During the February 6 broadcast of 60 Minutes, state TV host Olga Skabeeva noted: “Zelensky says, ‘The Russians won’t be able to get us out of the Kursk region. We will use it within the framework of negotiations.’”
Skabeeva couldn’t control her laughter, as she added: “It’s unclear what negotiations he is talking about. If they actually happen, he will certainly not be invited.” Trump said on February 9 that he had spoken to Putin. The two men may meet in the Gulf in the comings weeks, it has been reported.
Spiridon Kilinkarov, a former Ukrainian politician who betrayed his country and moved to Russia, said that Kellogg couldn’t present Trump’s peace plan at the Munich Security Conference, because the Russians hadn’t write it yet. Kilinkarov clarified that he was joking, although this line, in various iterations, is being repeated on state TV almost daily.
He also suggested that the Trump administration should bar Zelenskyy and his cabinet members from participating in Ukraine’s presidential elections, while investigating the way US aid to Ukraine was spent under their leadership.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s true anti-US policy was broadcast on Russian state TV. The co-host of 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, posted a video clip urging CIA personnel to betray their country by covertly providing information to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR.
The ad harked back to the Russo-American alliance during World War II as a reason for treason, claiming, “Your option is a better future for the nation. We are the option.”
Julia Davis is a columnist for The Daily Beast and the creator of the Russian Media Monitor. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, and Women In Film.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.
By Julia Davis, for CEPA
