The Russian expert goes too far for state television

A well-known Russian state television pundit has been fired after making a series of derogatory comments about two senior Russian diplomats, according to a Kremlin propagandist.

Yevgeny Satanovsky, a frequent guest on Russian state broadcasts, accused Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova of being a “heavy drinking” anti-Semite. In an interview posted on YouTube earlier this week, he added that Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was a “hopeless drunk.”

Satanovsky was quickly fired from “our channel,” prominent pro-Kremlin Russian state television host Vladimir Solovyov said in a clip posted on X. The clip was translated by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. Solovyov regularly hosts talk shows on the state broadcaster Russia-1.

Satanovsky’s statements were absolutely unfair and inadmissible, Solovyov said. He added that the political scientist and president of the Russian Middle East Institute had “insulted both of them.” [of] these distinguished diplomats and the State Department.”

“Therefore, I see no possibility of continuing professional communication with Satanovsky,” Solovyov said. “I would like to apologize to the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation,” he said in the short clip, also apologizing to Zakharova and Bogdanov. Newsweek the Russian Foreign Ministry emailed for comment.

Satanovsky is known for his violently anti-American rhetoric. He said the US could find itself in the “crosshairs” of a nuclear strike if the war in Ukraine escalates.

“The question is, will the whole thing reach the atomic phase or not? Because if it continues like this, it will definitely happen,” Satanovsky said during an appearance on Russian state television in mid-June. If Moscow does indeed detonate nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the United States would be one of the “targets that must be in its crosshairs,” he added.

Satanovsky said the US should abandon all of its global military bases and withdraw all of its nuclear weapons.

“There should not be a single point at which these people can start concentrating troops and sneaking up on our borders, concentrating nuclear weapons and bringing them to our borders,” Satanovsky said in February. “There shouldn’t be any. That’s the first goal.”

Solovyov, one of the Kremlin’s most prominent voices, is one of several commentators with ties to Russian authorities who have publicly called for attacks on U.S. soil and assets. He has predicted a third world war with Western nations and called for harsher punishments for critics of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Solovyov has also repeatedly called for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.