After playing clips of Putin’s latest comments, Vladimir Solovyov, the host of state TV program The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, jumped in head first: “Putin is talking about fortification and enlargement, because returning [territories] means enlargement. What we lost before we now must return. This is a totally different formulation of our goal. Life is getting to be interesting.”

Solovyov’s frequent guest, Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Russian Duma’s Defense Committee, who previously served as the Deputy Defense Minister, eagerly agreed: “Yes, we will restore and fortify… The world has changed. The period of American colonialism has come to an end and will never return. In this new world, Russia will be the power, the moral compass, the landmark of purity, truth and correctness, to which sensible people will flock from all over the planet.”

Kartapolov’s speech sounded like it could have come straight from North Korea, and indeed, that is where some state TV pundits see things going. In the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prominent state TV pundit Karen Shakhnazarov expressed concerns about human suffering and publicly urged Putin to quickly end the war. Whether or not he was scolded for publicly dissenting against the Kremlin’s approach, nowadays Shakhnazarov is fully aboard the empire re-building train.