- A Kremlin propagandist suggested Moscow should drop a nuclear bomb over Siberia, reports said.
- The comments by RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan sparked backlash from Siberian officials.
A loyal Kremlin propagandist suggested that Moscow should drop a nuclear bomb over Siberia as a way to convey a message to the West amid the grinding war with Ukraine, sparking backlash from officials in the Russian territory, according to multiple reports.
Margarita Simonyan, the head of the Russian state television network RT who has been described by the US State Department as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "main faces of propaganda and disinformation," made the comments on air this week, according to multiple reports, including The Moscow Times.
"If we were to conduct a thermonuclear explosion, a nuclear explosion, hundreds of kilometers above our own territory, someplace in Siberia, nothing scary would happen on the land," Simonyan said, according to a translation by the Russian Media Monitor.
"There will be no nuclear winter where everyone is afraid. There won't be horrific radiation that will kill everyone … None of that will happen," said Simonyan, according to the project, run by journalist Julia Davis, who monitors and analyzes Russian media.
Simonyan added, according to the translation, that it would "disable" all electronics and satellites and, "We will return to the year 1993."
—Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 3, 2023
A nuclear bombing over Siberia would send a "painful" message to the West, Simonyan said, according to a translation by The Moscow Times.
The RT editor-in-chief's remarks were swiftly met with fierce criticism from Siberian officials.
Maria Prusakova, a Communist Party member in the State Duma from Siberia's Altai republic, slammed Simonyan's comments as a "deep insult" and called on Simonyan to apologize, according to The Moscow Times.
Mayor Anatoly Lokot of the Siberian city of Novosibirsk told local media in the aftermath of Simonyan's remarks that there's "nothing good about thermonuclear explosions" and warned that the results of one could have consequences for "thousands of years," The Moscow Times reported.
Nikolai Korolev, an aide to Moscow City Duma deputy Evgeniy Stupin, petitioned Russia's Interior Ministry and Investigative Committee to probe Simonyan's comments, according to the news outlet.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke out about Simonyan's remarks, saying that they do not reflect Moscow's official position, The Moscow Times reported.
Meanwhile, Simonyan has since filed a complaint against one of her critics and threatened to sue others for "defamation," according to a tweet from Davis.
Simonyan wrote in a message on Telegram that she did not call for a nuclear strike on Siberia, Russian news outlet Meduza reported.
"This monstrous allegation," Simonyan said, "smears my reputation and inflicts all manner of damages and suffering upon me," according to Meduza.