Last week, Vladimir Putin sat down for an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin, where he warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy and logistics infrastructure had “opened Pandora’s box.” Moscow, Putin promised, would respond with devastating force. Kyiv’s deep strikes this summer have turned the war into a central political issue for everyday Russians, and with legislative elections just weeks away, Putin’s interview acts as campaign material. His threat of retaliation is echoed throughout Vesti’s Sunday broadcast. Britain is named as the European villain-of-the-week over its drone deliveries to Ukraine, and the program declares factories on British soil as fair game in the Kremlin’s retaliation. Has Moscow given up on cultivating Europe’s pro-Russian political parties in favor of open military threats?

In this episode, An ...