Putin’s Pro-War Propaganda at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium Friday looked like a ridiculous mixture of WWE and “Death of Stalin”-esque farce.
Moscow’s Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, Max Seddon, put it perfectly when he said in a lengthy Twitter thread, “For someone who rails against western culture so much, the setup at Putin’s speech is very Wrestlemania. You half expect to hear glass breaking and see Stone Cold come out with a steel chair.”
For someone who rails against western culture so much, the setup at Putin’s speech is very Wrestlemania. You half expect to hear glass breaking and see Stone Cold come out with a steel chair pic.twitter.com/KNhUtsWEVF
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 18, 2022
According to Seddon, state employees were bussed to the event where Russian celebrities and pop stars headlined in misery. Entertainers like Dmitry Guberniev, Oleg Gazmanov and Nikolai Rastorguev looked thrilled to be there… said no one, ever. Look at this screenshot Seddon snapped of Putin’s reputed favorite singer Rasorguev.
The only more pro-war singer than Gazmanov is Nikolai Rastorguev, reputedly Putin’s favorite. You can kind of get the vibe of the music from this picture pic.twitter.com/HGqfTgYrO0
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 18, 2022
The photographs of Russian celebrities in attendance of the propaganda party fest looked like they’d already had family members dragged to the gulags. (RELATED: Gymnast From Russia Gives A Metaphorical Middle Finger To His Ukrainian Competitor After Losing)
King Russia himself, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, took the stage at the party but wouldn’t allow anyone within 20 yards of him, even in the enormous stadium, Seddon noted. Behind him, a sign read, “for a world without Nazism, for Russia.”
Halfway through one of Putin’s speeches, the show’s feed cut out and went back to one of the pop stars. Seddon posted a video of the bizarre edit, after which Putin basically disappeared from the show. A short while later, Seddon posted a report that there was a server problem that caused the feed to drop, so the editors played Putin’s speech again from the top.
Here’s video of Putin suddenly vanishing mid-sentence. Where is he?! pic.twitter.com/c6VqE6GG3s
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 18, 2022
Baby Stalin (Putin) concluded his appearance by quoting Fyodor Ushakov, a Tsarist-era admiral and the “patron saint of Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber fleet.” To this day, the “Order of Ushakov” is one of the highest military awards in Russia, and he was literally turned into a saint by the Russian Orthodox church in 2001, according to Russiapedia.
Call me crazy, but I feel like Putin is trying to Ushakov himself into history with his painfully bizarre propaganda party. It looked and felt like something out of Armando Iannucci’s “Death of Stalin,” except Putin isn’t anywhere near as good-looking as Jason Isaacs’ portrayal of Georgy Zhukov, who also has an Order named after him (Order of Zhukov, not Isaacs).
The Death of Stalin is very, very good. But now I want a sequel with nothing but Zhukov. pic.twitter.com/6nfJNRzPK2
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) December 30, 2018
The farcical nature of the propaganda move by Russia is the latest attempt to convince the Russian people that the invasion of Ukraine is to kill all the Nazis and save the Ukrainian people. I bet Putin failed to mention that he’s all-but threatened to nuke the West if we keep helping Ukraine win against his disgusting invasion.