When it comes to spreading hate against Russia's "enemies" and praising President Putin, the 58-year-old beefy Vladimir Solovyov from Moscow is one of the Kremlin's key combatants.

The West seems only now to be realizing how the owner of wonderful properties on Lake Como makes his millions.

English-subtitled excerpts from Solovyov's programs are shared on social media.

A recent appearance on state television, in which he says, as is usually the case in a black crew-neck shirt, that in Ukraine people are fighting against citizens from NATO countries.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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"When this operation is over, NATO must ask itself: Do we have what it takes to defend ourselves?

Do we have the people to defend ourselves?

There will be no mercy,” Solovyov threatened.

"It's not just Ukraine that needs to be denazified," he continued, referring to one of Putin's war goals.

"The war against Europe and the world" is becoming more and more concrete.

"That means we have to act differently, much tougher."

What shocks in the West is common in Russia.

For years, people like Solovyov have portrayed the Ukraine conflict as part of a struggle for survival against the West. Professionals like him don't need any specific instructions from the Kremlin for this, which journalists research says there are.

Suffice it to shrill paraphrase Putin's speeches and articles.

Solovyov is flexible here.

As late as November 2013 he said about the desire for a "return" of the Ukrainian Crimea to Russia: "God forbid", that means war.

He then praised the annexation four months later as “historical justice”.

Now Solovyov, loosely based on Putin, is also calling for the annihilation of the Ukraine.

Recently, one of his shows was about the mass killings of Bucha, which Solovyov counted among the “crimes of the Kiev junta”.

As with Putin, Ukrainians who advocate an independent country are “Nazis” to Solovyov.

Russia must complete in Ukraine what "our grandfathers, great-grandfathers and fathers didn't finish in 1945," he said, and wished for a "tribunal" on the "Nazi rags."

Nobody needs Ukraine, the West wants to destroy Russia, said Solovyov.

He suggested that arms shipments should be attacked before they reach Ukraine - in other words, attack NATO countries.

Complaint to the FAZ

One must prepare for a third world war.

"We live in happy, apocalyptic times," Solovyov said.

He also scolded Alexei Navalnyj's anti-corruption hunters - they had shown him the real estate on Lake Como and a residence permit in Italy.

These "scum" are now compiling lists of people against whom sanctions should be imposed, Solovyov said.

That was "high treason" and that "these Nazi accomplices" should be prosecuted.

America, Canada and the EU only put Solovyov on their sanctions lists after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Solovyov's villas were confiscated and he is no longer allowed to enter the EU.

It is unclear why he remained unmolested for so long, unlike his state media colleague Dmitry Kiselyov, against whom the EU imposed sanctions in 2014.

It is clear that Solovyov allowed the reports about him to be followed, probably out of concern for his image in the West and possible sanctions.

At the FAZ, he personally complained about an article from February 2019 that was presented to him in translation and offered to explain mistakes in "a little tea": he, Solovyov, was "not terrible, far from the image of the propagandist".

The meeting did not take place, but Solovyov already complained on the phone that he had not described demonstrators in Moscow as “two percent shit”, as written in the article, but only a certain group.

Solovyov laughed that the article mentioned an Instagram post from the Russian Mercedes-Benz subsidiary thanking the "talented journalist" for purchasing a sedan.

"I've been buying Mercedesse for many years," exulted Solovyov.

Contrary to what is written in the article, he did not demand "hanging and shooting of allegedly fascist Ukrainians", but only "Nazis".

He makes a distinction, because "Banderovtsy" - supporters of the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera - had buried his relatives alive during the war.

"For us, the war is not over."

At the end of February Solovyov said about the EU punitive measures against him, this time in a red hooded sweater with a hammer and sickle on his arm, for the first time “civilized Europe imposed sanctions on a Jew”, the “heirs of Nazi Germany imposed sanctions on a journalist “.

In 2020, YouTube awarded Solovyov for his success on the video platform.

Only after the invasion were two channels deleted.