Upon hearing the news that President Donald Trump had suspended military aid to Ukraine, I sat down for some Russian must-see TV: white guys screaming about international relations. Curious to understand how Trump’s Kremlin-friendly move was playing in the motherland, I wanted to compare the reaction of Russian state news to that of American right-wing channels. Pretty soon, I started thinking about that meme from The Office in which Pam holds up two photos, saying, “Corporate needs you to find the differences between this picture and this picture,” before the camera cuts to her privately admitting, “They’re the same picture.”
Over the past few days, Russian news talk shows have consisted almost entirely of translated clips of Trump-administration officials and Trump surrogates—Vice President J. D. Vance, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, among others—defending the president and attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Fox News. The interview clips were interspersed with video of the fateful meeting between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office last week, along with readings, in Russian, of Trump’s posts on Truth Social and Elon Musk’s posts on X, which is funnier than it sounds.
Soon after the Trump-Zelensky blowup, the Kremlin said that America’s foreign policy now “largely aligns with our vision.” Across three different news shows on the state-owned Channel One and Russia-1, which take their marching orders directly from Russian President Vladimir Putin, this cozy alignment was on full display. It seemed that Russian state TV, and Putin by extension, could not be more pleased with what has been happening. The shows I watched simply broadcast clips of Trump officials, and then their all-male panels of analysts—no DEI in Russia!—echoed their exact words, approvingly.
Even when the shows’ panelists admitted to some nervousness about Trump’s next moves, they said his decision to cut off aid to Ukraine “raised our spirits,” as one guest put it. At times, they sounded like they were discussing a problematic friend who everyone agrees is crazy but who inadvertently did something useful.
Panelists repeatedly made reference to Ukraine drawing the world closer to “World War III”—a direct quote from Trump, which has since been parroted in various U.S. media appearances by his loyalists. They fawned over Trump’s prowess and insulted Zelensky; one guest called the Ukrainian president “dust under the feet of Trump,” an even nastier take on the man whom Trump called “no angel” and “a dictator.”
On the show The Great Game, panelists derided Zelensky as someone who believes himself, wrongly, to be “the great leader of the West.” One panelist referred to Zelensky’s conduct during the Oval Office meeting as “hysterical diplomacy” and said, “He couldn’t figure out how to behave himself in the interest of his own country.” The panelist declared that the showdown probably “shortened the war by many months.” Presumably, he said this because he believes Russia will win.
On Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, panelists discussed how the confirmation of Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy, “would be very good news for us, because the part of Trump’s team that supports putting Ukraine on Europe’s shoulders would be strengthened considerably,” as one analyst put it. Solovyov noted favorably that Trump hit Europe and Zelensky “on the nose.” The show played a clip of Vance saying that the United States and Europe can’t support Ukraine indefinitely, and one panelist heartily agreed. Actually, they all agreed—they aren’t allowed to disagree—and they voiced this agreement at an eardrum-popping volume. They sounded mad, but they were very, very happy.
60 Minutes—Russia’s version—pointed out how reasonable Trump was being, highlighting that Trump had praised Ukrainian soldiers during the Oval Office meeting. Zelensky, however, called Vance “J.D.,” “as though they are schoolyard buddies,” and was “biting the hand that feeds him.” The show then played clips of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying that he wished Zelensky had said “We love America,” and of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claiming on Fox News Sunday that Zelensky’s government is canceling elections and silencing the opposition. (Elections there have been postponed because of the war.)
The panelist Spiridon Kilinkarov added that Zelensky “presented not the interests of Ukraine but of the anti-Trump European globalists,” a nearly verbatim echo of Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville’s claim that Zelensky has been “brainwashed by the globalist socialist group in Europe.” The show played a clip of Tuberville saying on Newsmax that “Putin and President Trump and the people on our side … will end up making this decision for the future of Ukraine.” They liked the sound of that.
Another panelist jumped in with a claim that Zelensky once campaigned for the Democrats in Pennsylvania—a misleading statement, originally made by Vance, that referred to a fall meeting between Zelensky and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro at an ammunition plant. Then, in an ouroboros of surreality, the show played a clip of The Daily Show, which itself featured a clip of that same Russian show in which a host expressed joy at the crumbling of the U.S.-Ukraine alliance. Perhaps DOGE can make the Russian news industry more efficient by firing all its commentators and broadcasting a direct feed of One America News instead.
Finally, the panelist Igor Korotchenko put a bow on everything by remarking with relief that “Biden financed this war, but the priorities of the new administration are different.” He suggested that the Trump administration should go further than pausing military aid, that it should have Elon Musk cut Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite-internet system—something the Trump administration has already threatened to do.
“If Trump is able to remove Zelensky as a political figure from the global chessboard,” Korotchenko added, “he should be eligible for the Nobel Peace Prize.” Darrell Issa, the Republican U.S. Representative who nominated Trump for the award on Monday, couldn’t have said it better himself.
