The pro-Kremlin propagandist’s remark was part of his interview with Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Institute of the Middle East, who spoke about the war during a recent segment. A clip from the interview was posted to Twitter on Friday by Julia Davis, a columnist at The Daily Beast and creator of the Russian Media Monitor, which added English subtitles to the interview.
Satanovsky was giving an assessment of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which he described as a “holy war,” before the TV host weighed in and said that he believes Russia is “getting into a gigantic European war.”
“If they [Europe] burn up most of their weapons in Ukraine, if a significant part of their military potential, including human potential, their instructors, will be destroyed in Ukraine, why would we stop?” he asked.
However, Satanovsky doesn’t think that will happen, saying “we’re not getting into European war, that is just one of the possibilities, it’s not even the most serious one.”
Still, he believes that “things are moving towards a big war. Americans want it to be limited to the European theater of military actions. That’s understood and there is no pity for them, including Romania, Poland, and Germany. There’s even less pity for Germany.”
Satanovsky also predicted that a “nuclear strike will be launched against the territory of Poland” if Warsaw attacks Russia in Ukraine, Belarus or the Kaliningrad region.
Europeans are already discontent with the impacts of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, including the energy crisis that emerged as a consequence of the invasion.
Russia’s energy industry was heavily targeted immediately after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion on February 24. European countries and the United States announced heavy sanctions in an effort to weaken Russia’s economy in response to the war.
In response, Russia warned that it would not resume gas supplies to Europe through Nord Stream 1 until sanctions were lifted. Europeans are now concerned about the gas shortages and high energy costs.
“Pumping problems arose because of sanctions imposed against our country and against a number of companies by Western states, including Germany and the U.K.,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in September. “There are no other reasons that would lead to problems with pumping.”
During a televised speech on Thursday at the Valdai Club, a think tank and discussion forum, Putin blamed the West for escalating the war in Ukraine.
“The West over the recent years, and especially over the last months, has taken several steps towards escalation and they’re always trying to escalate. There’s nothing new in that,” he said during his rant against the West. “They are fueling the war in Ukraine, organizing provocations around Taiwan, destabilizing the world food and energy markets.”
He continued: “And right now they [the West] have reached an absurd situation where any alternative point of view is declared to be a subversive propaganda and a threat to democracy. Whatever comes from Russia, well, it’s all the Kremlin’s doing, but they should look at themselves first.”
Newsweek reached out to the Russian foreign affairs ministry for comment.
