Kremlin TV Says if Putin Ran For U.S. President, He’d Win—and Trump Would Be His

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to Moscow’s global condemnation and isolation, prompting even the most seasoned propagandists to concede that the Kremlin is losing the information war to the West. Yet, as the conflict grinds on and media coverage of the hostilities starts to wane, Russian propagandists are now trying to convince their population that Moscow has been wildly successful with its info-ops and will be able to win back global public opinion once the “special operation” in Ukraine is over.

Emboldened by the likes of Tucker Carlson, whose show on Fox News is consistently translated and featured on Russian state television, the Kremlin’s mouthpieces are assuring everyday Russians that millions of Americans would rather side with Russian President Vladimir Putin than U.S. President Joe Biden. (Back in 2018, Russian state media had a field day with two men at a Trump rally in Ohio, who were photographed wearing shirts that say “I’d rather be a Russian than a Democrat.”)

During Thursday’s broadcast of The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, one of the program’s recurring guests, Yaakov Kedmi—also known as Yasha Kazakov—an Israeli former politician and diplomat, bitterly disagreed with those pundits who conceded that the Western media’s coverage of the brutal war had battled Moscow at every turn. He argued: “It was said that [the West] is winning a propaganda war, but I’m not so sure about that. Look at any country in Europe. Look at France: who is more popular—Macron or Putin?” One after another, pundits in the studio said, “Putin!” Kedmi proceeded to opine that the same is true in just about every Western country, including Germany, France, Italy, and the United States.

Talking about American citizens, Kedmi asked, “In who do they trust? If tomorrow Putin announced his candidacy for the president of the United States, who in the U.S. could compete with him in popularity?” Foreign Policy Analyst Alexander Kamkin quickly added, “And Trump would become his Vice President.”

During Wednesday’s broadcast of the state TV show 60 Minutes, host Evgeny Popov, who is also a State Duma member, complained that the Jan. 6 Committee was targeting Russia’s own Donald J. Trump. He repeated the propaganda tropes about U.S. elections being “fake, unfair, and falsified” and threatened Americans about the upcoming elections: “The best is yet to come! Wait for it, Americans!”

While it may be tempting to dismiss constant discussions of Russia’s ongoing and planned interference in U.S. elections on Kremlin-controlled state television as “trolling,” Moscow is indeed funding and controlling these operations. An indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Friday in Tampa, Florida, charged Aleksandr Ionov, a Russian national, working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), with allegedly orchestrating a foreign malign influence campaign that used various U.S. political groups to sow discord, spread pro-Russian propaganda, and interfere in elections within the United States.

Working under the supervision of the FSB and with the Russian…