Russia has a sometimes complex relationship with the West. She has just proven it once again this Friday. The object of the controversy? A short Christmas video broadcast on Russian pro-government Telegram channels that shows nothing less than the country's air defense system shooting down… Santa Claus as he enters Moscow's airspace!
The problem with this humorous video is that it surfaced on Russian social media, such as Telegram and the local equivalent of Facebook, VK, just hours after Russia was accused of being involved. in the plane crash in Kazakhstan, which killed 38 people. The video, first shared by the Telegram channel “Pul N3” according to the Moscow Times, begins with Santa flying over the center of Moscow to the typically American tune of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”…
“Hello, Russians!” Here are your presents,” exclaims Western Santa Claus, sipping a Coca-Cola, while the camera zooms in on his sleigh, loaded with missiles bearing the logos… of NATO.
Santa continues with a “Happy New Year” before a missile hits his sleigh, causing it to explode in mid-air. The scene then cuts to a military control room where a Russian soldier and “Ded Moroz” – the Russian and blue version of Santa Claus – monitor the action on a screen while a traditional Russian tune plays. ” It's done ? Ded Moroz asks the soldier wearing headphones. “Yes, it’s done. The target has been destroyed,” replies the soldier.
” It's good. We don’t need these foreign things flying over our heads,” Ded Moroz concluded, kissing the soldier. ” Good year ! “, he finished, to his joy. The character of a Russian air defense officer, played by Russian actor Dmitry Melnikov, later stated that he was unable to name the authors of the video due to a confidentiality agreement according to the Moscow Times.
“Ukrainian drone attack amid thick fog”
For the record, Russia has come under increasingly distant air attacks as Ukraine has stepped up its retaliation this year, with missile strikes on Russian soil and drone attacks in urban areas now part of a war which is no longer taking place only on Ukrainian territory.
The crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines airliner, which killed 38 people on Wednesday, was due to “external interference”, according to the preliminary conclusions of the investigation announced on Friday, with experts and Western media favoring the possibility of a Russian anti-aircraft missile to explain this tragedy.
Russia, for its part, confirmed that Grozny, the capital of Chechnya where the aircraft attempted to land twice without success before being redirected towards Kazakhstan, was the target, on the day of the tragedy, “of a Ukrainian drone attack in a context of thick fog.” Seeing Russia's “obvious” responsibility for the images of the crashed plane, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a “thorough investigation to establish the truth”.
“The preliminary results of the investigation into the Embraer 190 crash indicate “external, physical and technical interference,” Azerbaijan Airlines said on Telegram. The company also announces the suspension of flights to several Russian cities… a start to a response to the possible responsibility of Moscow.
“An investigation is underway to establish whether it was a Russian air defense strike or another cause,” Azerbaijani MP Rassim Mousabekov told AFP, while emphasizing that “we see in the photos and images videos the plane's fuselage with holes that are normally caused by air defense missiles.
