Guests on a Russian state television programme have risked the wrath of Vladimir Putin by deriding his invasion of Ukraine.
It's been 16 days since Putin launched a 'special military operation' – that term is important, as Russia is prepared to hand out prison sentences to those who distribute 'fake news' regarding the conflict; i.e., truthfully describing it as an invasion and war.
'If the fakes lead to serious consequences then imprisonment of up to 15 years threatens,' Russia's lower house of parliament said when announcing the legislation. However, as anti-war protests intensify across the country, sparking thousands of arrests, people have even called out Putin on TV.
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On a Russia 1 show hosted by Vladimir Soloviev, a supporter of Putin's regime who backed the Kremlin's claims of the Mariupol maternity hospital bombing being 'fake', his guests candidly criticised the invasion of Ukraine.
One described it as like 'Afghanistan but worse', referencing Russia's deployment in the country for 10 years until 1989, when it withdrew its troops.
Karen Shakhbnazarov, a political commentator and filmmaker, said, 'The war in Ukraine paints a frightening picture, it has a very oppressive influence on our society. Ukraine, whichever way you see it, is somewhere with which Russia has thousands of human links,' as per The Daily Beast.
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'The suffering of one group of innocents does not compensate for the suffering of other innocent people... I don’t see the probability of denazification of such an enormous country. We would need to bring in 1.5 million soldiers to control all of it.'
Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at Moscow State University, also said, 'For our country, this period won’t be easy. It will be very difficult. It might be even more difficult than it was for the Soviet Union from 1945 until the 1960s.'
'We’re more integrated into the global economy than the Soviet Union, we’re more dependent on imports – and the main part is that the Cold War is the war of the minds, first and foremost. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union had a consolidating idea on which its system was built. Unlike the Soviet Union, Russia has nothing like that to offer,' he added.
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While Soloviev frustratedly looked for support, Semyon Bagdasarov, a Russian Middle East expert, said, 'We didn’t even feel the impact of the sanctions just yet... We need to be ready for total isolation. I’m not panicking, just calling things by their proper name.'
Further citing the wide-ranging sanctions against Russia, Dmitry Abzalov, director of the Center for Strategic Communications, said, 'We’ll still be the ones taking the terminal hit, and an incomparable one, even though other countries will also suffer some losses.
'We’ll all be going to hell together – except for maybe China – but going to hell together with the French or Germans won’t make our people feel any better,' he added.
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If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information
Topics: Russia, Ukraine, World News
Cameron Frew