What Russians See on State TV About “the Special Military Operation” in Ukraine

After the March 29 peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, Russian state TV was busy trying to calm down viewers who were worried that Russia might start wrapping up the “special military operation.” While liberal Russians saw the Russian delegation’s statements about reducing attacks on Kyiv and Chernihiv as a positive sign, Kremlin supporters felt betrayed. Hundreds left angry comments on the Telegram channel of Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT. “Are we really capitulating?” they asked. “Why do we negotiate with Nazis?” One warned, “Russians won`t forgive this.”

The citizens weren’t the only ones expressing concern, though. State TV propagandists usually stay close to the Kremlin line. But this time they deviated from the official narrative. They were in no rush to discuss the scaling back of the military activity. On the contrary, they seemed to be in denial. Vladimir Solovyov, host of the talk show Evening With Vladimir Solovyov on the state-owned channel Russia-1, suggested that the head of Russia’s delegation in Turkey, Vladimir Medinsky, was expressing his own opinion, not Russia’s official point of view. The anchor added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a “demon who should be exorcised rather than talked to.”