Vladimir Putin recently reached that tantrum-fueled place where he realized that one year of war in Ukraine isn’t going anywhere, but he’s also stomping his foot over a lack of respect from the U.S. This led him to brag about his nuclear arsenal, and even more bombastic talk is surfacing on Russian State TV. Everything that surfaces there is generally sanctioned by the Kremlin, and if it isn’t, there are consequences to be had.
To back up for a moment, Putin huffily departed a nuclear pact in February while discussing his plans to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2023. As if on cue (and via Newsweek), the talking heads let the same chatter fly to comic-book villain effect. As originally flagged by Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko on Twitter, retired Russian naval officer/Kremlin rep Konstantin Sivkov made hints about Russia’s “special weapon,” specifically how to use it for “waking up” the Yellowstone volcano.
Attention, United States!
Russian propagandists discuss “waking up” the Yellowstone volcano with nuclear weapons. pic.twitter.com/tu5kJv6Ww0
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) February 23, 2023
Sivkov wasn’t done yet. In this video clip (posted by U.S. military veteran Jake Bore), the Kremlin talking head advocates for dropping a nuke on the San Andreas Fault, which sure sounds like someone’s been taking tips from Lex Luthor in the late 1970s Superman flick (film footage does appear at the end of this clip below).
The Russian military on Kremlin State TV is calling for nuking the San Andreas Fault to trigger earthquakes and kill millions of people in America. This was originally Lex Luthor’s idea in Superman I (1978). The Russians are watching old movies to get ideas how to win in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Vg0H3XloRG
— Jake Broe (@broe_jake) February 26, 2023
How, exactly, this would accomplish anything in Ukraine remains a mystery but this isn’t the first time that Sivkov has floated the San Andreas idea. As Newsweek points out, back in 2015, he used the written word to make the same argument about dropping a nuke on either Yellowstone or in California. Now, he wants Russia to go full supervillain on the U.S., which the Kremlin apparently believes is key to winning the Ukraine war that they are so clearly not winning at all.
(Via Newsweek)