Russia’s new propaganda piece, a video titled “Kill Santa,” has once again demonstrated the Kremlin’s flair for blending geopolitical messaging with absurdity. In the video, Santa Claus—a Western cultural icon—flies his sleigh over the Kremlin only to be shot down by Russian air defences.
Santa’s crime? Hauling NATO-style missiles, as though his real mission this Christmas was to arm the West against Russia.
Naturally, Russia’s own Grandfather Frost steps in to save the day, declaring, “We don’t need anything foreign in our skies.” But the timing of this theatrical stunt has raised more eyebrows than applause.
Propaganda Timing: Insensitivity Amid Tragedy
The release of the video comes just days after the tragic downing of an Azerbaijani aircraft near Grozny, an incident believed to have been caused by Russian air defence systems. The crash, which resulted in the deaths of 38 people, has drawn international scrutiny. Many critics have noted the striking parallel between the video’s imagery and the real-world disaster, viewing the timing as both insensitive and inflammatory.
The symbolism of shooting down a foreign entity, combined with the ongoing investigation into the crash, raises questions about whether the video was intended as a deflection from the incident or simply an ill-timed piece of propaganda. Either way, the parallels are unlikely to be lost on international audiences, particularly in Azerbaijan and its allies.
Who Is Grandfather Frost?
The video reignites a longstanding cultural rivalry: Russia’s Grandfather Frost versus the Western Santa Claus. The Kremlin promotes Grandfather Frost as a distinctly Russian figure, a custodian of national traditions shielding the country from Western cultural influences. However, the historical origins of this character reveal a far less patriotic story. The modern Grandfather Frost, as recognised in Russia today, is a 19th- and 20th-century invention—a creation pieced together from folklore, literature, and Soviet propaganda.
The irony is striking. While rejecting Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas as “foreign,” Russia champions a figure who is, in reality, a construct designed to align with Soviet ideological imperatives. Far from embodying an ancient or uniquely Russian tradition, Grandfather Frost is the product of deliberate reinvention to serve political and cultural agendas.
This rejection of Western Christmas traditions, including Saint Nicholas, is not a recent development. During the early Soviet period, the Bolsheviks banned Christmas altogether, viewing religious and cultural symbols as threats to their secular and revolutionary ideals. Saint Nicholas, a figure deeply rooted in Christian traditions, was vilified as a tool of bourgeois exploitation. Soviet poet Demyan Bedny famously denounced him as an ally of the clergy and the kulaks.
It was not until the late 1930s that elements of the Christmas holiday, including the Christmas tree—rebranded as the New Year tree—and Grandfather Frost, cautiously resurfaced. Stripped of their religious significance, these symbols were repurposed as secular icons for New Year celebrations, a deliberate move to align with Soviet ideological objectives and reinforce the regime’s rejection of traditional Christian practices.
Even music became a battleground for cultural control. In the 1940s, Ukrainian carols, including the globally renowned Carol of the Bells, faced censorship within the Soviet Union. Their poetic harmonies and emotional depth were perceived as subversive, threatening the regime’s cultural narrative. Stories of radio broadcasts being abruptly cut mid-performance reflect the authorities’ fear of these carols’ enduring resonance.
In promoting Grandfather Frost as a uniquely Russian figure, the Kremlin seeks to assert cultural independence. Yet, the character’s history tells a more complex story—one of adaptation, reinvention, and a shared legacy with the very traditions it seeks to supplant.
Modern Propaganda: A New Twist on Old Themes
Fast forward to today, and Russia’s propaganda machine has resurrected these old tensions in a new, bombastic form. By shooting down Santa Claus, the Kremlin seeks to reject Western influence while asserting its own cultural identity. Yet, the irony is unmistakable: in trying to rewrite the narrative, Russia has inadvertently reminded the world of its long history of cultural borrowing, reinvention, and outright censorship.
In the end, the “Kill Santa” video tells us less about the West and more about Russia’s ongoing struggle to define its cultural identity. Whether through Soviet-era reinventions of holiday traditions or modern propaganda narratives, the effort to erase “foreign” influences has often resulted in a mishmash of contradictions. As the world laughs—or cringes—at the Kremlin’s latest stunt, one thing is clear: history has a way of exposing the absurdity of even the most carefully crafted propaganda.
Read also:
Missile Strike Suspected in Grozny Plane Crash: 38 Dead, Questions Mount
