A propaganda chief for Vladimir Putin nicknamed ‘Goebbels in a skirt’ has bizarrely compared him to Jesus Christ – despite more than half-a-million deaths in the Ukraine war he started in 2022. RT television chief Margarita Simonyan claimed the Russian president is a “very merciful man”. She said: “Vladimir Putin is a man who is incredibly developed in a trait that I consider the most important for a person.
“He has it at a level close to the high standards Jesus Christ bequeathed us. This trait is called mercy. Vladimir [Putin] is a very merciful man. Very much so.” The extraordinary bid to compare him to Jesus comes as Russia is smarting from a succession to setbacks in the war as Ukraine’s domestically-developed missiles and drones are causing major damage to his war machine.
Putin’s oil sector – crucial to funding the war – is paralysed, with long queues for high-price fuel at filling stations, and his control over invaded tourist peninsula Crimea is slipping due to constant Ukrainian strikes on supply routes.
Simonyan has been nicknamed ‘Goebbels in a skirt’. She runs the RT propaganda empire and regularly appears on TV defending Putin and his war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has given Putin’s ally Alexander Lukashenko seven days to dismantle relay equipment on his territory which he alleges helps direct Russian drone strikes to kill and maim Ukrainian people.
The Ukrainian president said: “I think one week will be enough for him to do this. Why do I say one week? Because every day now, our civilians are dying and children are being injured because of this. If he does not do this, we will do it ourselves.”
Such a move by Ukraine would threaten to widen the war with Russia already seeking to pull Belarus into the conflict, which Lukashenko has so far resisted.
“There is equipment on his territory along two regions bordering Ukraine that corrects fire against the Ukrainian population,” said Zelensky.
“We do not have such a strong front there now, where Ukraine and Belarus are. Civilians are being killed there.
“There are relays on the corresponding towers. Can he remove them?”
Lukashenko insisted he “does not want to be in the war”, said Zelensky.
