Solovyov pointed out: “All of them have phones and they won’t stay silent. If they’re being handed rotten things, if they have no helmets, no body armor, no one is going to hide it… I will tell you very politely: don’t play games with people… This isn’t some liberal riff-raff, these are our people and I refuse to be silent about it.” Continuing with the same theme, Simonyan cautioned: “Comrades Commanders, this is not the time for this… don’t anger the people!”

The head of RT urged those involved in the process of mobilization to remember the story of the mutiny that occurred on the battleship Potemkin, sparked by the crew being fed maggot-infested meat. Simonyan exclaimed: “Let me remind you that in 1905, small things like these led to the first mutiny of an entire military unit in the history of our country. Is that what you want?” She starkly warned: “You’re toying with armed people.” …

But there was one person who received no blame, no questions and no harsh words from Solovyov or Simonyan: Russian President Vladimir Putin. To the contrary, Simonyan praised Putin for taking “the heavy load of responsibility” solely upon himself.