(MOSCOW, RUSSIA) – The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has made bizarre remarks comparing the war in Ukraine to orcas hunting polar bears, suggesting children should be taught about the food chain to understand the rationale for the invasion.
Speaking to a group of people, Putin asked a man who had visited the North Pole about his experiences.
“Interesting. Did you see any polar bears?” Putin asked.
The man responded: “Yes, of course. Two. Two big ones. Huge. Can you imagine? There are orcas living right nearby. And they eat these bears like they’re nothing. They just attack them as a group and boom, tear them apart. It’s all very interesting.”
Putin replied: “Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s all part of the food chain. Children need to be told about this too so that they understand what kind of world we live in and why we are carrying out the special military operation.”
The analogy is considered unusual given that the bear is widely recognised as a symbol of Russia. In Putin’s framing, the Russians would be the orcas and Ukraine the polar bears, a comparison that appears to invert traditional Russian symbolism.
No known case of an orca consuming a polar bear has ever been recorded in nature. Russian media have speculated that the remarks may relate to artificial intelligence generated videos circulating on social media.
Khodorkovsky Comments
Former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man before being imprisoned for 10 years, has said Putin has lost his mind.
“Putin, when he came to power, I think in his third year, he said that a person in power should not stay in power for more than two terms, that is more than seven or eight years, because after that he goes crazy,” Khodorkovsky said.
“Putin himself said this and he turned out to be absolutely right. He has gone mad in the sense that he is a completely different person than when he came to power.”
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