Russian propagandists pick fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger
It’s the Kremlin propaganda machine versus the Terminator.
A Russian state TV host went after Arnold Schwarzenegger, calling the star the face of “American imperialism and colonialism” after he posted an impassioned plea for Russians to question their government’s war in Ukraine, according to a report.
“He, in California, will tell us, who live here … the truth? That is their approach towards us,” Belarusian propagandist and Russian state-TV host Vadim Gigin said Sunday, the Daily Beast reported.
Co-host Vladimir Soloviev added, “Schwarzenegger twice traveled to Iraq to support the American troops and never tried to tell the Iraqi people why they’re being destroyed.”
Schwarzenegger posted his nine-minute video last week to social media and telegram channels to evade Kremlin censors.
In the video, the 74-year-old former body-builder and former California governor said Moscow was lying to both the Russian public and troops about their mission to “denazify” Ukraine.
Schwarzenegger also invoked his father’s experience fighting with the Nazis in World War II after the annexation of Austria — telling Russians his dad was “pumped up on the lies of his government” and lived the rest of his life in “guilt” and “pain.”
The one-time Mr. Universe also talked about his reverence for the Russian people, cemented when he met world champion weightlifter Yuri Petrovich Vlasov at the age of 14.
Russian power lifter Maryana Naumova responded to Schwarzenegger in a reply published by Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.
“Do you remember how in the second part of the ‘Terminator’ your hero goes back in time to prevent the creation of Skynet, which will be guilty of the death of mankind?” Naumova asked of Schwarzenegger.
“Russia’s military special operation does not aim to destroy the Ukrainian people. It is aimed at the neo-Nazi Skynet, which over the years has completely subjugated Ukraine,” she said.
“Your appeal is based on some other, invented reality,” she added, unironically.
Additional reporting by Jesse O’Neill
