Solovyov Frames War as “Eternal” in Escalating Kremlin Rhetoric

(MOSCOW) – Russian state television presenter Vladimir Solovyov has described Russia’s war as an “eternal” struggle between good and evil, in remarks broadcast on the radio programme Full Contact alongside weather presenter Evgeny Tishkovets.

Opening the programme with multilingual greetings, Solovyov said he had become “a star of international TV” the previous day and justified his rhetorical style as necessary to cut through what he described as modern information noise. He said: “I will speak in all languages, because otherwise you do not understand… this is the only way to wake you up.”

He argued that heightened emotional messaging was required to attract attention in a crowded media environment, describing it as a deliberate method to “launch a certain idea” while audiences are engaged.

Solovyov characterised the West as “absolute evil” driven by a long-standing ambition to destroy Russia. He framed the conflict as a civilisational struggle, stating that it did not begin in February 2022 or in 2014, but was instead “an eternal war between good and evil”.

Addressing viewers in Italy, he urged them to reconsider their political leadership and criticised an Italian journalist who had described the Kremlin in derogatory terms. Solovyov countered by portraying the Kremlin as “the embodiment of light” and a symbol of what he called the immortality of the Russian people.

He said the Kremlin represented the “heart of our people” and argued that Russia could never be defeated. “Remember this. We must win,” he said, adding that victory was essential to Russia’s continued existence. “Without victory there is no Russia. And if there is no Russia, then there is no world,” he said, attributing the sentiment to Russia’s supreme commander.

Solovyov concluded by linking the day’s weather to the war effort. Referring to morning rain as “cleansing”, he drew a parallel with Russian military operations in Ukraine, describing them as an effort to “cleanse” territory. Tishkovets echoed the analogy, saying rain “cleans the atmosphere” and likening it to what he described as ongoing operations in the “special military operation zone”.

Tishkovets added that Russian forces were removing what he called “fascist elements” and argued that such forces “must be destroyed completely”, asserting that a Ukrainian state in its current form should not exist on Russia’s western and south western borders.