The “War on Christmas” is real, as a pro-Kremlin army blogger posted a video on the social messaging app Telegram on Friday that featured Santa Claus through Russian air defenses as he flew over Moscow.
The video was first published by pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Pul N3, with the caption “Santa Claus flies over Russia for the last time.”
It begins with scenes of a classic Christmas birthday party before cutting to show Santa Claus in his same old-fashioned red suit, with several missiles emblazoned with the NATO logo on his sleigh. With the song “We We We Wee You A Merry Christmas” in the Background, Santa can also be heard in English: “Hello, Russians! Team that has been sent to Ukraine in its approximately three-year war with Russia.
As Santa sips on a can of Coca-Cola, the camera zooms out to show an air defense missile streaking towards the sleigh, causing it to explode.
In a strange twist, the scene changes to a Russian army control room, where a soldier sits next to Ded Moroz, the mythical character who resembles Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, and, of course, Father Christmas.
Also known as Morozko or Grandfather Frost, Ded Moroz remains popular in the East Slavic countries and has been a vital component of Russian culture for centuries. While the figure was banned in the early Soviet era, Ded Moroz later followed Soviet officials and often downplayed the emphasis on consumerism and capitalism. In recent years, Ded Moroz has been promoted through Moscow as a component of its efforts to address Russia’s ties with the West.
It is unexpected that Russia’s “Anti-Santa Claus” ordered that Saint Nick was shot.
After having an effect on the missile, Ded Moroz asked in Russian, “Is that it?”
“Yes, the target is destroyed,” the Russian serviceman replied.
“Well. We don’t want anything in our sky. Happy New Year,” Moroz said, kissing the soldier, who replied: “The same! Happy New Year for all. “
The video was not produced by the Kremlin, but the Ukrainian counterinformation medium reported that it is based on the history of Moscow, according to which the existing conflict in Ukraine is a creation of NATO.
“Russian paranoia regarding the ‘NATO threat’ has reached new heights. Russian propagandists have released a ‘social video’ in which it appears that Santa Claus fired through Russian air defenses near the Kremlin,” he said CFORCD in a message on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The timing could not be worse. The video of Santa Claus being shot down by a Russian air-defense missile was released just two days after an Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer jet crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing at least 38 of the 67 people on board. The aircraft had attempted to twice land in the city of Grozny, Chechnya, but due to the presence of Ukrainian drones and fog, was diverted to the Aktau airport across the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan.
U.S. officials told CNN on Thursday that early indications are that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have shot down the passenger jet.
The videos and photographs that have been published in the media recommend that the Azerbaijan plane suffer injured by the shrapnel, however, the cause of the holes has been confirmed. Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said the plane crashed after hitting the birds.
“Russia’s reaction overall has been interesting,” said geopolitical analyst Irina Tsukerman, president of Scarab Rising. “The parody is not a coincidence. It is a message to either the West and Baku, indicating that a Santa Claus is thought of as a symbol of Western culture and there is no no holds barred; and two that Russia is even willing to take down Santa Claus if it deems it appropriate.
In words, this is a war at Christmas, or at least Christmas, as it is celebrated in the West.
“It is clear that the murder of Santa Claus would not be well received and positions Russia as a belligerent, unpleasant and humorless country,” Tsukerman added. “The symbol of this is shocking and negative. But what Russia does now, which cannot escape meticulous scrutiny of its movements, is to double down on its competitive, almost bold stance, so that the international network comes after any effort to enforce foreign regulations.
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