A top Kremlin propagandist gushed over Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on state TV, calling her a "beauty."
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled media organization RT, made the remarks while speaking on TV channel Russia-1 alongside host Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most prominent figures in Kremlin-backed media.
The Daily Beast's Julia Davis shared an excerpt of the broadcast on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. Newsweek reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.
"Meanwhile in Russia: head of RT Margarita Simonyan praised Marjorie Taylor Greene as 'a real beauty,' who wears white coats and furs. Simonyan asserted that only Russia can stop this war and it will do so only after Moscow achieves whatever it wants," Davis wrote in a post accompanying the video.
Simonyan, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, spoke about Greene after she was initially mentioned by host Solovyov.
Greene has featured prominently on Russian state TV due to her view on the war in Ukraine. She has been accused of parroting Kremlin propaganda and criticized for her position on U.S. assistance for the war-torn country.
The Georgia Republican has pushed the narrative that Ukraine instigated a Russian invasion by forming alliances with the West. Top Kremlin propagandists have often touted her to replace former President Donald Trump as the leading GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
"Marjorie Taylor Greene you've just shown is a beauty. She is one of a few members of the U.S. Congress who is trying to look like a person in an old-fashioned sense of the word," said Simonyan.
"She is a blonde, who wears white coats with a fur collar. She is demonstratively heterosexual."
Simonyan asked the audience what they think Wikipedia says about Greene.
"Who is Majorie Taylor Greene? She is a conspiracy theorist. She has extreme right views. As soon as a person says something that shows they are normal, America's enormous media behemoth declares them a conspiracy theorist and a person of extreme right views," she said.
"Problem is that due to the horrific uprooting of education in America in several recent decades, the horrific dumbification of their nation through the use of mass media and mass culture, there's almost no normal people left who can appreciate the striking contrast and release that a person is a person and which one is a dummy with slogans."
Simonyan added, "We are the only ones who can end this war when we decide to do so when our goals will be accomplished to the extent that we find to be satisfactory."
The prospect of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow has been raised multiple times since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Kremlin has specified a few conditions that are non-negotiable for Russia, including that Ukraine must accept the September 2022 annexation of four of its regions—Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia—following referendums called by Putin that were deemed illegal by the international community.
The Kremlin has said there can be no peace deal "that does not take into account today's realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia."
Meanwhile, Ukraine has said that any peace deal must invalidate the September 2022 annexations of its territory and that the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin annexed in 2014, must once again be considered part of Ukraine.
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
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