The Daily Beast
ALEXEY NIKOLSKYAll-out cyberwarfare, nation-wide forced blackouts, and the targeted disruption of internet servicesâfor one of the Kremlinâs top propagandists, all of those tactics are fair game in what she describes as a fated war-to-come against the U.S.âWar [with the U.S.] is inevitable,â declared Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of the state-funded Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik, who believes the conflict will break out when, not if, Vladimir Putin moves to seize more territory from Ukraine.As Russiaâs military buildup on Ukraineâs doorstep mounts, Kremlin loyalists have been urging for even more overt aggression and bloodshed in the campaign to annex Ukraineâs Donbas region. The only thing standing in the way, they say, is U.S. support for their beleaguered neighbor.NATO issued a statement on Wednesday demanding an end to Russiaâs troop movements on the border with the disputed territory of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. It is the largest buildup of Russian troops since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The U.S. underlined the statement this week by deploying two warships to the Black Sea.On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatened retaliation. âWe warn the United States that it will be better for them to stay far away from Crimea and our Black Sea coast. It will be for their own good,â he said.The escalation was foreshadowed on state televisionâs Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev over the weekend. Simonyan explained that it was time for Russia to gear up for a showdown against the U.S., and prophesized a kind of war driven by hacking, the forced disruption of internet access, the shutting down of power supplies, and an all-out offensive on U.S. infrastructure.âI do not believe that this will be a large-scale hot war, like World War II, and I do not believe that there will be a long Cold War. It will be a war of the third type: the cyberwar,â said Simonyan.She warned thatâin this theoretical battleâthe U.S. would plot to cut off the electricity of entire Russian cities. In turn, she speculated, Moscow would be able to force a blackout in Florida or New Yorkâs Harlem at the flip of a switch.âIn conventional war, we could defeat Ukraine in two days,â Simonyan said, âbut it will be another kind of war. Weâll do it, and then [the U.S.] will respond by turning off power to [the Russian city] Voronezh,â she said.The top RT editor asserted that â[Russia] needs to be ready for this war, which is unavoidable, and of course it will start in Ukraine,â arguing that the Kremlin is âinvincible where conventional war is concerned, but forget about conventional war... it will be a war of infrastructures, and here we have many vulnerabilities.âHer solution consists of Stalin-type measures to eliminate âvulnerabilitiesâ in the run-up to another escalation, emphasizing the need for a hack-proof, government-controlled internet. âWe still donât have a sovereign internet, but God willing, we will,â she said.She wholeheartedly endorsed a suggestion from Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultranationalist leader of Russiaâs Liberal Democratic Party, who argued that all of Russiaâs opposition must be eliminated by May 1, 2021. With imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny on a hunger strikeâand suffering from severe health ailments after being denied appropriate medical treatmentâthe Kremlin seems to be firmly set on that course.Simonyan argued that once Russia minimizes its vulnerabilities and renders Putinâs opposition powerlessâwhich she argued could happen in a matter of monthsâthe Kremlin will finally be ready to annex Ukraineâs eastern region.âIâve been agitating and even demanding that we take Donbas. We need to patch up our vulnerabilities as fast as we can, and then we can do whatever we want,â she boldly proclaimed. The host, Vladimir Soloviev, wholeheartedly agreed: âWe only lose if we do nothing.â He argued that by absorbing parts of Ukraineâor the entire countryâRussia would be able to remove the zone of American influence further away from its borders.As one of the Kremlinâs most valued propagandists, Margarita Simonyan is notoriously close to the Russian president and has received multiple awards directly from Putin. After accepting one such award in 2019, Simonyan thanked Putin âfor the most important reward in life⌠this honor to serve oneâs Motherland.âHer âserviceâ has involved RT and Sputnik-driven disinformation operations aimed at influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which she often boasts about by pointing to the inclusion of her name in various U.S. intelligence reports.Russiaâs recent cyberspace activities seem to serve as good practice for the âinevitable warâ foreshadowed by Simonyan.Last year, six Russian intelligence officers were criminally charged by the U.S. for using the worldâs most destructive malware to force blackouts in Ukraine and damage the critical infrastructure of multiple countries, which caused nearly $1 billion in losses. On Monday, hackers operating from Russia targeted Franceâs homeschooling platform.The Kremlin is prepared to intensify its offensive against the West, but fears of the retaliation that would follow. The idea of a bulletproof âsovereign internetââcompletely under government control within Russian bordersâis already on the books, with Moscow having introduced the idea as a preventative measure against retaliatory hacking attempts from other nations.Simonyan argued that Russia will surely be able to exploit the U.S.âs âcatastrophicâ educational standards, and referred to American military analysts and specialists as incompetent and stupid. She heartily laughed about news that more than 200,000 U.S. service members experienced hearing loss due to defective earplugs.âWe can never come to any agreements with [Americans],â Simonyan said, arguing that instead, Russia can just as easily defeat the U.S. in a cyberspace war.She added, mockingly: âWe donât even need the nukes.âRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
