A proponent of Putin said that when she was younger, she learnt that there was a “fundamental gap” between the East and the West while watching Friends.
The 42-year-old Margarita Simonyan serves as editor-in-chief of the RT network, which receives funding from the Kremlin and serves as Putin’s spokesperson.
She also justified the invasion of Ukraine as a struggle “about our freedom to raise our children to be exactly like us and not them” when speaking on Russian television on Sunday.
Ms. Simonyan, who is presently under western sanctions, said that she felt the two countries were extremely similar thirty years ago when she was studying in the United States as part of a school exchange program.
But she said that she quickly came to see that there were already indications of division and a gap.
Things were minor at the time, so it was difficult to detect them, she said. “With the first gurgles of this boiling ultra-liberal borscht, things were just rising to the surface.
For instance, in the 1994 television series Friends, which is perhaps the most well-known American TV series of all time and such an embodiment of American society, you would need to have incredibly sharp eyesight to see it.
Then, Ms. Simonyan discussed the show’s allusions to homosexuality, citing the 1994 Friends premiere episode in which Ross learned his wife had left him for another guy.
Ross entered the café with a dejected expression. The 42-year-old continued, “Why did he appear lost and dejected? after he learned his wife had abandoned him for another lady. With pity, all of this is presented: excellent for her and awful for him! Because it was so uncommon, so novel, and so fascinating, it was hard to see this as obvious propaganda at the time.
The 42-year-old described Russian culture’s “fundamental division” with the series’ representation of homosexuality.
The propagandist said that Russia was waging a fight against Ukraine’s historic values via the invasion.
“This conflict is about our freedom to raise our children to be exactly like us and not like them,” Ms. Simonyan said. Between us and our children, as well as between them and their children, there is a divide.
The 42-year-old had previously used his appearance on Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov to argue that Russians should choose self-mortification than combat loss.
It happens as Russia intensifies its missile attacks and tries to retaliate in its conflict with Ukraine.
Putin has said that the conflict was a struggle against western notions of tolerance and freedom.
Last week, Putin said that the west was attempting to “overthrow religion and traditional values” in Russia.
In a raving yearly address to the Valdai Club, he also claimed that the west was encouraging “outright satanism.”
It occurs at a time when it has been shown that young Russians are becoming more accepting of homosexuality.
Additionally, according to opinion surveys, the majority of Russians over 60 share Putin’s views.
Ms. Simonyan’s comments came after another of Vladimir Putin’s top propagandists apologized and begged to save his job after going on TV and calling for the drowning of Ukrainian children in a “genocidal” tirade.
One of Russia’s main state-owned news organizations, RT, is run by controversial editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and is presently the target of Western sanctions. Anton Krasovsky, 47, is both a well-known presenter and the director of broadcasting for RT.
On several state TV networks, Putin’s experts often call for annihilating Ukraine or destroying the West with nuclear weapons.
Krasovsky, however, shocked even his own superiors with his vicious tirade against drowning Ukrainian youngsters.
He remarked in his recorded TV statements, “Just drown those kids, drown them in the Tysyna [River].”
“You toss them into the fast-moving river…” Burn them once you shove them into their huts.
Simonyan swiftly removed him from RT, and Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee and a former classmate of Putin’s, requested a probe into his comments. He may now face criminal charges.
In addition to publicly pleading with his supervisor to let him return to work, Krasovsky apologized to everyone he had upset but refrained from withdrawing his remarks.
The director of broadcasting for RT added, “Listen, I feel very worried about somehow missing the red line [in what I said] concerning the children.”
When you are on air, it might happen that you get carried away and can’t control yourself.
I’m sorry to everyone who was shocked by this. Margarita [Simonyan] please forgive me. And I apologize to everyone who thought this was crazy and unimaginable.
“I hope you will pardon me.”
Krasovsky and Simonyan often send each other heartfelt letters of love and appreciation, but Simonyan called Krasovsky’s TV remarks “savage” and “disgusting.”
It is difficult to imagine Krasovsky really believes children should be drowned, she added, adding: “Perhaps Anton would explain himself by telling what momentary insanity it was triggered by, and how it slid off his mouth.”
“As of right now, I’m terminating our collaboration since neither I nor the rest of the RT crew can even entertain the slightest notion that any of us could ever share such rubbish.”
Simonyan ended his speech by saying, “To the children of Ukraine, as well as to the children of Donbas and to all other children, I wish for it all to end as soon as possible, so that they can live peacefully and study in the language they consider to be their mother tongue.” This was despite the fact that Simonyan had personally advocated for a Russian crackdown in Ukraine.
In an interview with Russian sci-fi novelist Sergei Lukyanenko, who likewise has virulently anti-Ukrainian beliefs, Krasovsky made his despicable remarks.
In the disturbing interview video, Krasovsky uses an insulting slur throughout and makes a number of remarks that seem to imply he would murder the Ukrainian youngsters.
Krasovsky’s remarks were in reaction to Lukyanenko’s recounting of how youngsters told him they would have better lives if Moscow had not occupied their nation when he first visited Ukraine in the 1980s.
Krasovsky was observed raising his hand and acting out drowning children as he talked.
He smirked and said to Lukyanenko, “That’s not your approach—you sci-fi authors are educated people—but it is our method.”
Krasovsky continued by saying that all Ukrainians should be executed and that he would shoot and burn them alive in their houses.
In a brief interview portion that was posted on social media, Krasovsky also scoffed at claims that Russian invaders had sexually assaulted elderly Ukrainian ladies.
Following the frightening interview, Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, demanded that RT be banned internationally.
Governments who haven’t yet outlawed RT must watch this clip, he said on Twitter.
If you let RT to function in your nations, you are siding with this.
“Aggressive genocide incitement, which has nothing to do with freedom of expression (we will prosecute this guy for it). Ban RT everywhere!