A prominent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a chilling threat to the West as tensions continue to soar between the two sides.
Earlier this year, during a recent episode of “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov,” its host suggested Britain could “be buried under a radioactive wave”.
The Russian talk show hosted by Solovyov features interviews with prominent political figures and commentators.
The distasteful remark was made during a discussion about an earlier threatening comment from Dmitry Medvedev, who was President of Russia from 2008 to 2012 and its Prime Minister from 2012 to 2020.
In late September, the International Biathlon Union upheld a ban on Russian athletes, with British representatives supporting the decision.
In response, Russian Skier Elena Vyalbe suggested “throwing a serious bomb into the centre of London.”
In response to this, Medvedev said: “We need to solve the problem at its root and immediately sink the damned island of Anglo-Saxon dogs.”
Talking about this on his show, Mr Solovyov said: “I can imagine English newspapers tomorrow. They will be excellent.”
Show guest, state Duma member Andrey Gurulyov, responded by stating that the West is attempting “to destroy” Russia with its actions in Ukraine, which he described as “another Great Patriotic War”.
This was a term used in Russia to refer to the Soviet Union’s conflict with Nazi Germany.
Mr Solovyov added: “You get together and twice during every century [and] you try to destroy us. You’re not getting it, so we’ll have to get you.”
The outspoken supporter of President Putin has issued several similar warnings against Ukraine’s allies.
During an earlier March broadcast, following a guest’s suggestion that members of the Russian elite may be tried for war crimes following the Ukraine war, Mr Solovyov said: “Who is going to judge us?”
The guest, columnist Vladimir Kornilov, answered: “The British?”
To this, Solovyov responded: “The country that, by that point in time, will be buried under a radioactive wave?”
In mid-September, Solovyov also was reported to have said that Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region was a basis for Russia to “start a nuclear war.”
Later that month, Mr Putin said Russia was “reassessing its deterrence policy,” and hinted “provocations by Ukraine and its allies could cross Moscow’s red line on the use of nuclear weapons.”
He said these updated guidelines would consider “aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state, as their joint attack on the Russian Federation.”
Medvedev then shared this on Telegram, posting that the “neo-Nazi” Kyiv government, aided by the US and other allies, was “pushing the world toward a nuclear catastrophe.”
