I have been following the Ukraine war on YouTube, in print media and specific websites. The sites that I follow show Russian propagandists belting out the Kremlin rhetoric at maximum volume. Naturally, this is expected to occur in a closed and authoritarian nation like Russia, so there is nothing unusual here. he apparently has a large fan base in Russia, his propaganda works, he does influence people’s minds.

One of the main protagonists I watch is Vladimir Solovyov, a Jewish Russian who is ready to push the Kremlin’s Nazi line. I have to give him his due, he is certainly passionate. I cannot say he argues his case well, he just speaks with some misplaced authority on the issue – he is basically a dribbler. When I say authority, I do not mean technical or insider authority, I mean he strongly argues his point of view without any quantitative data, logic or facts.

He is demanding nuclear escalation by the Russian Federation, he speaks of flattening Berlin, Paris and London, he even discusses a strike on New York. This is nothing more than Kremlin messaging to an internal audience, with modern technology we are able to view their television shows. It does make interesting viewing, surely no rational person would fall for this stupidity, yet Vladimir Solovyov is pretty popular in Russia.

Surely even Vladimir Solovyov knows this war is not going well for Russia, he cannot be that stupid, his job is to stir up the masses and put the Kremlin’s version of the truth forward. But he must know Russia is losing this war, Solovyov cannot be believing his own propaganda, surely he has enough awareness to see Russia is in big trouble.