Solovyov threatens Germany with a radioactive wasteland over Merz

Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov insulted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the state-run channel Russia 1 and threatened his country with a nuclear strike. The trigger was Merz’s call to stop the fighting in Ukraine and begin peace talks.

“Hey, Merz, who are you to demand anything?” Solovyov fumed on his show “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”. According to a Ukrainian media project, he called the chancellor a nonentity who does not even have the support of the German people, and then moved on to threats.

“Do the Germans get some kind of physical pleasure from this once every hundred years? Are they masochists? Do they just like watching Russians march through Berlin?” he asked in quick succession. And he added: “I warned you: this time we won’t be marching, because radioactive dust is bad for our boots”.

The propagandist then predicted a “Carthaginian fate” for Germany and promised that nothing but a “radioactive wasteland” would be left of the country.

This is not the first time Solovyov has attacked the Federal Republic. In early September he questioned German reunification and called for the GDR to be restored. “The treaties on the reunification of Germany should be denounced,” he declared then. “Germany itself should no longer be considered a legitimate state.”

Solovyov is one of Russia’s most aggressive pro-government propagandists: on Russia 1 he staunchly backs Putin’s policies and the war in Ukraine. According to an independent media project, he does not do so for free: his annual salary at state television is 14,057,000 rubles (about 3,360,000 crowns).

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz