Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters in Russia appear to be shaken to their core over his latest felony indictment for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. election.
During his morning show Full Contact, decorated state TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov was aghast about the charges. “I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it in my entire life! In America, they are currently attempting to destroy Trump—and to do it unbelievably fast!,” he said. “This sort of a thing never happened in American history!”
Solovyov’s guest, Russian pundit Dmitry Evstafiev, wholeheartedly agreed, concluding that the prospect of future negotiations between Moscow and the U.S. government have now been crushed—and even going so far as to suggest that the indictment could lead to all-out war with the U.S.
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“These aren’t the elites or society with whom you can negotiate! I’m starting to lean towards your point of view that a big war is becoming almost inevitable,” he said. “Americans always thought they could bypass the big war, but the more they keep doing this internally within their own country... and if things related to Trump will continue the way they’re going, we can surmise that their regime went from being authoritarian to being totalitarian and I can tell you that they will not be able to escape a big European war.”
Evstafiev complained about pro-Western elements in Russia, and suggested without proof that certain groups in the country are considering staging another coup at a time when the Kremlin is vulnerable.
“All of our liberal pro-Western groups have livened up! They say that something should be done, there should be a coup and then they offer us something,” he said. “Who will offer it, these people, who are trying to forcefully put their own former president in prison, with violation of all norms and procedures? Do you really think that people who don’t abide by their own written and unwritten rules will honor them towards you? Have you totally lost your minds?”
Solovyov chimed in to criticize Trump for not finishing off the Democrats when he had the chance: “He didn’t throw [Hillary] Clinton in prison, he did not deal with the rest of them and now this clan is eating him alive!”
In Evstafiev’s view, Trump is being prosecuted solely because he had a real chance of winning in the upcoming presidential elections.
“They were certain that no one would follow Trump. They thought that Trump would be a disco dancer and he would dance disco in front of the rednecks,” he fumed. “Meanwhile, they [the Democrats] would win. Now they no longer have this certainty. This means that serious powers with big money have committed to Trump! To them, Trump is a lesser evil than all the rest. I understand these big money people! To have a moron as their president is better than nuclear war.”
Evstafiev bemoaned the fact that only middle-aged voters fear nuclear threats, apparently lamenting efforts by Russia’s leading propagandists to terrorize Western populations into submission through nuclear blackmail.
The duo concluded Trump’s only potential solution for this problem would be to incite a civil war in the United States. “He is practically [planning a civil war] already, at least he’s getting close,” Evstafiev said.
Guests on the state TV show 60 Minutes reached similar conclusions. Host Olga Skabeeva claimed not to understand the nature of charges against Trump, describing them as “strange.” Alexander Gusev, a contributor to the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry magazine, predicted that election-related conflicts, including the growing collection of indictments against Trump, will trigger a civil war in the United States.
“The initiation of charges against the ex-president, the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump, demonstrates a crisis of the political system in the United States... This internal conflict that is currently happening in the US is unnerving Americans. They are very concerned, because it may lead to civil war,” he said.
Gusev’s solution was simple: “For us, it’s very important to get the support of the global south, to create an anti-Western, an anti-American coalition”—to which Skabeeva replied, “Let’s bear in mind that we’ve started doing that already.”
