Olga Skabeyeva is Putinism explained to the masses and housewives. “They’re spitting in our faces saying sure, it was us and we will do it again… well, we can’t keep getting fooled, because all in all we’re a great power.” Yesterday he was quivering with frustration, the presenter nicknamed “the iron doll of the president” more for her fierce criticism of the opposition than for her origin from a city not far from Volgograd, the former Stalingrad.
His afternoon strip is important, because he simplifies the message in a national-popular key, as we would say, trying to adapt it to the general mood of his large audience. “We have to respond,” she kept repeating, commenting with her guests on the new attack on the Crimean bridge. “It’s our reputation and our honour.”
There is a thread linking the mutiny of the Wagner Brigade to the decision, whether irrevocable or temporary, to block the agreement on the export of grain to Europe and Africa. And it is made of rather fragile material, as can be a public opinion that is always aligned, but just as bewildered. What do you do when the media tries to interpret a contradictory line about the attempted coup, while enemies strike at the infrastructure that has become a symbol of the conquest of Crimea?
You can resort to atomic threats, as Dmitry Medvedev usually does. «It is impossible to fight against terrorists with sanctions, intimidation or warnings. They only understand the language of force.” It is a pity that a few days ago, even the majority of the members of the Foreign Policy and Defense Council produced a document «which only represents the position of the signatories» against «pseudo-theoretical reasoning and emotional declarations in the style of so-called talks -shows that can encourage catastrophic decisions for our country and all of humanity».
Putin was careful not to touch the subject in his evening message, perhaps aware of the fact that this type of attack will become ever more frequent. He called it “a terrorist act, carried out on a structure used only for civilian purposes”, and said he was awaiting proposals from the Ministry of Defense for “a prompt response”. During the attack on the bridge last October 8, he made more or less the same statements. A few days later, one of the most violent bombings since the beginning of the Special Military Operation hit Kiev.
But right now the Kremlin needs something else. There is a need to silence that ultra-nationalist galaxy which has long been calling for an even harder punch towards Ukraine and the Western world. The media linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin had taken the wheat agreement, and its extension last May without any assurances on its exports, as a sign of the weakness of the current power. «You are soft» said the founder of Wagner himself in one of his videos, accusing phantom «elites» of favoring Europe to the detriment of his beloved Africa. He was talking to Putin, without daring to quote him.
Now Gray Zone, the Telegram channel linked to the mercenary militia, scoffs at the general outrage following the new attack on the bridge. “Everything is difficult now, because we’ve never been serious before.” Igor Girkin, the “rifleman” known for the crimes committed at the time of the first war in Donbass, defines the tenants of the Kremlin as “citrulli”. “Who knows when they will understand that we will be hit even harder and further away, and that there can be no agreement.”
Putin again needs to flex his muscles, to relieve the pressure of the hawks. Are we or are we not a superpower, as Skabeyeva basically asks herself? It is no coincidence that Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, declares that the US and Great Britain have created “a state-run terrorist structure”.
Also in October, the first withdrawal from the grain deal, which was later rescinded, was motivated by his superior Sergei Lavrov with a conspiracy theory concerning a joint Britain-Ukraine attack on the Russian fleet stationed in the Black Sea. Recent Russian history tends to to repeat. More and more tired.