The UK’s BBC is currently being heavily criticised for carrying on its platforms seemingly endless gay, transgender, and other left-wing propaganda. However, questions should surely be asked not just of the BBC but also of other media outlets that appear happy to blindly repeat Kremlin propaganda, writes Gary Cartwright.
The Daily Mail, for example, appears to be receptive to Kremlin tales of new weapons of mass destruction that can wipe out the UK. “Russian warmonger boasts his ‘Satan II’ nuclear missile ‘can break through ALL modern defences’… and will be aimed and ready to strike Britain ‘by AUTUMN'”, read one recent headline.
“Western military experts said the Sarmat is capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads…” the article continued.
In fact this is not news: Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs) have been with us since 1968. Indeed, the UK’s Polaris and Trident missiles have carried them.
Only one Sarmat – or ‘Satan II’ – has been fired, and that was an unarmed prototype. Realistically, we can expect to see this missile ready to enter operational service in 10 years or so. It will certainly not be wiping out the UK in the Autumn.
Putin has a history of prematurely announcing new weapons systems. The much vaunted Bulava Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) was a case in point.
Work began on Bulava in 1998, with the first test launch taking place in 2004. The system entered service in 2018 – 14 years from first test flight to operational status.
The project was plagued with setbacks, which the Kremlin went to considerable lengths to cover up – including murdering a journalist who uncovered the truth.
In December 2006 Ivan Safronov, a 51-year old journalist, and defence correspondent for the newspaper Kommersant, published a damning report on the failures of Bulava.
He revealed the continual failures of the system during test launches. This was the system hailed by Vladimir Putin as the next generation in nuclear weaponry – claims he is making, and western media is repeating – about Sarmat.
Safronov was also known to be investigating the possibility that Russia was planning to sell arms to Syria, through a third party in order to avoid allegations of dealing with rogue states.
He was duly questioned by the FSB. Subsequently he told colleagues he had been warned that the FSB would press charges of revealing state secrets against him.
There would be no charges, however, as on March 2nd 2007, Safronov fell to his death from the 5th floor of his apartment building.
Safranov lived on the 3rd floor, and his hat and items of food that he had just bought were scattered on the stairs between there and the 5th floor. He was alive when he was found on the pavement, but emergency services refused to respond to calls for help – as is often the case following an FSB murder – an ambulance arrived on the scene only after he had died.
A verdict of suicide was returned by the coroner.
Safronov’s son, also named Ivan, followed in his father’s footsteps as a journalist and in July 2020 was arrested and charged with treason. Putin clearly carries grudges.
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