The head of Russia’s premium news channel has called for the assassination of Lindsey Graham after the Republican met with Ukraine’s president in Kiev Friday.
A spliced video of Graham speaking to Volodymyr Zelensky showed the senator saying that the fact “Russians are dying” is “the best money we’ve ever spent,” according to a report by Julia Davis for the Daily Beast.
The out-of-context recording – he actually called U.S. investment in Ukraine important for global security – was broadcast in Russia, and caused outrage.
The head of the news channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, said: “If Lady Graham really said that the money for the killing of Russians is the best money the U.S. ever spent... I hope that in our country, the sons or grandchildren of Sudoplatov are alive, his pupils, or the descendants of his pupils. It’s not even hard. We have his address," the Daily Beast reported.
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Sudoplatov was a Soviet Lieutenant General who was involved in several intelligence operations during Joseph Stalin’s reign, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky.
“I have no ill will towards anyone and our religion tells us to forgive, but no one tells us to reward these types of things," said Simonyan, according to the Daily Beast. "When we don’t act in response to these things, it is the same as encouraging them. It causes them to become increasingly more brazen.”
Graham was also hit by fury from other prominent Russians. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, “Senator [Lindsey] Graham has something to compare with. One of their [US] investments led to World War II and the Holocaust.”
And State TV host Vladimir Solovyov said on his Sunday night show, “Your dirty American money also fully supported the Nazi regime in Germany! You are a Nazi beast and you’re following in the footsteps of your predecessors. I’ll repeat it once again: you will croak, but the Russian people will live forever!”
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on his Telegram account: “In his beloved America, not only ordinary people are regularly killed, but dirty money is also being spent on killing senators. He should recall the sad fate of Robert Kennedy, Huey Long, Clementa Carlos Pinckney, John Milton Elliott, Wayne Owens and other American politicians.”
Graham later told Reuters, “It has been a good investment by the United States to help liberate Ukraine from Russian war criminals... Mr. Medvedev, if you want Russians to stop dying in Ukraine, withdraw. Stop the invasion. Stop the war crimes. The truth is that you and (President Vladimir) Putin could care less about Russian soldiers.”