China has become the latest target of derisive attacks in a Russian state media broadcast following a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden.
"We are ahead of China in terms of military technology," Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent Kremlin propagandist and staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said during a recent broadcast.
"Why should we idolize China? What houses in China have heating? And how many have a pension?" Solovyov said, during a discussion with a state media guest, in a brief clip published on social media.
Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese foreign ministry for comment via email.
The remarks from Solovyov, one of the best-known Kremlin mouthpieces, are a move away from his frequent and virulent criticism of Western countries providing support for Ukraine in its war effort against Moscow.
As the invasion pushed Moscow further away from countries backing Kyiv, an increasingly isolated Kremlin has maintained close ties with Beijing. China called for peace in Ukraine, but dodged condemning Russia for launching its now almost 21-month old war.
In February 2022, just before Russian troops crossed en masse into Ukraine, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared a "no limits" partnership between the two nuclear powers. Putin has traveled to Beijing — and Xi to Moscow — since the outbreak of the full-scale Ukraine war.
Xi also traveled to California earlier this month for a summit with President Biden, which the White House described as a "candid and constructive discussion" seeing "progress on a number of key issues" between the two global rivals.
Solovyov's comments typically rail against countries such as the U.S., the United Kingdom and European nations providing aid to Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Solovyov said the German capital, Berlin, "will burn," having previously suggested that the country would eventually come "under a Russian flag."
His bellicose rhetoric has often included advocating nuclear strikes. Earlier this month, Solovyov called nuclear war "unavoidable," but argued during a state media broadcast that if nuclear weapons were used against a non-nuclear nation, this wouldn't "lead to the nuclear collapse of humanity."
Just days earlier, Solovyov had said that Moscow would use nuclear weapons "right away," should NATO countries come into increasingly direct conflict with Russia.
The U.S. State Department branded Solovyov as possibly "the most energetic Kremlin propagandist around today," and has described his broadcasts as producing "anti-Western and anti-Ukraine disinformation, hatred, and vitriol on a daily basis."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
