(MOSCOW) – Russian state propaganda figures have responded to the sudden death of United States Senator Lindsey Graham with a gloating, hate-filled broadcast that urged the Kremlin to escalate its war against Ukraine without mercy. The outburst aired on the Rossiya 1 programme “Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov,” where host Vladimir Solovyov and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan celebrated the senator’s passing, dismissed him as a paid agent of the American military-industrial complex, and demanded the total destruction of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure before the approaching heating season.
Solovyov opened the segment with undisguised glee, stating: “Today Lindsey Graham croaked. I probably should have said that Christian tradition requires… No. He croaked suddenly.” He continued that Graham had been “joyfully threatening death to all Russians” from Kyiv before returning to America and dying abruptly. The propagandist speculated without evidence that the senator may have demanded more money from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or “knew too much” about corruption schemes. “It is a pity he was alone,” Solovyov added.
Simonyan joined the tirade, branding the deceased senator a “paid chatterbox” who defended the interests of arms manufacturers including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and the United States Department of Defence. She suggested Graham was either a “natural fascist” or a hypocrite motivated purely by financial gain, stating: “He has now died. Well, everything will be explained to him there. I think it will even be explained in Russian.”
The broadcast then pivoted sharply from personal attacks to strategic threats. Solovyov declared NATO had effectively announced war on Russia following unspecified declarations made in Ankara, and demanded an immediate, brutal response. He called for preemptive strikes, stating: “The Fatherland is in danger. This is a war in which we must win. We have been dragged into this war for too long to be let go.”
In a direct threat timed for the coming winter, he warned that after targeting oil refineries, Ukraine would strike power stations and heating infrastructure to “try to turn life in Russia into unbearable conditions of existence.” He demanded Russia “respond ruthlessly and decisively” and “go at a faster pace.”
Simonyan reinforced the escalatory rhetoric, lamenting that previous restraint in striking bridges and ports was based on a calculation that such infrastructure might prove useful to Russian forces.
“Now the situation is so difficult that everything must be destroyed, and we shall sort it out later,” she said, while acknowledging Russia’s deep technological dependence on China and the catastrophic consequences should Beijing turn away.
The broadcast concluded with Simonyan reciting verses by the Russian poet Alexander Blok, depicting Russia as a sphinx that gazes upon the old world with both hatred and love before crushing its skeleton.
The footage, recorded from Russian state television, was released by Russian Media Monitor.
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