Vladimir Putin ’s TV propagandists have tried to claim British divers are behind the Nord Stream pipeline bombings.
Russian state television transmits threats and lies under strict orders from the Kremlin, and in a recent broadcast a military expert was wheeled out to say that despite a lack of active testing of nuclear weapons due to international prohibitions, Russian atomic bombs were ready to go.
The chilling warning comes as Putin flouted international law to annex large chunks of four Ukrainian regions, effectively putting them under the Russian nuclear umbrella if attacked.
Col. Mikhail Khodarenok, a military commentator, told Rossiya 1 TV: “As regards special nuclear combat units, due to the fact that we signed a lot of documents on the prohibition of nuclear weapons testing, nuclear warheads are not being detonated now to check their serviceability.
“But at the same time maintenance work is carried out on them, their serviceability and readiness for operational use is checked…”
He insisted: “We guarantee that our nuclear missile shield is not dilapidated and is in full working order and ready for immediate use.”
Presenter Olga Skabeyeva, aka Putin’s ‘Iron Doll’ propagandist, said: “In other words the good news at the end of 2022 is that we are guaranteed to destroy [the West]….”
The message appeared clear that Russian nuclear missiles are ready on Putin's instructions to be used should Ukraine with Western weapons attack the regions.
Skabeyeva’s show also concocted a slur against Britain in claiming that British military divers were behind the explosions in the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic.
A day earlier her show had held the Americans responsible.
The Western consensus is this was an operation conducted by the Russians, acting as a warning of Putin’s capability to cause mayhem by exploding key gas and electricity pipelines and communications cables under the sea.
Skabeyeva said on the channel: “If you look at the military activity in the bombing area, there are a lot of coincidences.
“Watch your hands, as they say.”
Without citing any evidence, Skabeyeva said: “On the morning after the explosion, a report came to the White House that British scuba diving exercises were going on for the third day right next to the Nord Stream.
“The same day London rewarded them for some kind of combat merit in carrying out…an important exercise in foreign territorial waters, whatever that means.
“A few weeks before the explosion, an American military helicopter circled tightly over the scene.
“Yes and the blast site is just a hushed up place for exercises, it is where Denmark and NATO train regularly.
“In June the US boasted of successes in the field of underwater drones, which were tested.
“Where? Again at the same location.
“Now Pentagon chief [Lloyd] Austin is offering Denmark and Sweden his help in the investigation.
“And all of a sudden the Western media is trying hard to push the idea into the minds of the general public that the gas explosions were caused by the Kremlin, which of course benefits Gazprom.”
She said there was “no proof” the British were behind the underwater bombing bit it was “highly likely”.
Russian State TV receives daily orders from the Kremlin on what anti-Western messages to broadcast to its population across the country’s 11 time zones.
