A Russian television presenter resumed a discussion this week during a panel debate on the state channel Russia 1stating that the country should annex Portugal to its territory, after “denazifying Germany”, as part of an expansionist plan also focusing on the United States.
Despite the relaxed tone of the discussion, which included the participation of commentators, the host of the program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”, one of the great propagandists of Putin’s government, argued that the “Portuguese would live much better as part of the Russian empire”, in reference to the Kremlin’s project to conquer new territories.
In a previous meeting, participants had already agreed with Vladimir’s position, in which he declared that Putin should “liberate Lisbon”, a city from which it is possible to “see the Statue of Liberty, when the weather is good”, after the annexation of Ukraine.
Another pro-Putin journalist, Margarita Simonyan, who is the station’s editor-in-chief Russia Today and was part of the group of debaters, stated that the annexation would not be out of necessity, “but she would very much like to have the country as part of the Russian nation”. In addition to Lisbon, Simonyan added to the list other areas that could integrate the Eastern European country, such as the American states of California and Hawaii.
The program, presented by Vladimir Soloyyoy, premiered in 2012 on the channel Russia-1 and brings to debate the possibility of the Kremlin taking over other countries, including Portugal. This is the third time that Lisbon has become the theme of the television show.
Guest commentators frequently discuss strategies for expanding Russian territory, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine, in which Putin seeks to annex territories belonging to the neighboring country.
Other Kremlin targets are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), such as Finland, which this week completely closed its borders with Russia, and Poland. In addition to these, there are countries that were part of the former Soviet Union, such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Last year, two months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at one of the Kremlin-organized press conferences that “Putin’s goal is an open Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok,” linking the extreme eastern Asia to the westernmost tip of Europe.
According to Medvedev, the objective of expansionism “is the peace of future Ukrainian generations and the opportunity to finally create an open Eurasia from sea to sea”, he declared at the time.
Currently, Russia has territorial expansion and influence agreements with China in the Arctic, where it has increased military activities in recent years. Furthermore, Russian diplomacy has met with allies in the Middle East, amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and renewed its partnership with the Wagner Group, which once again recruited mercenaries to work with the Kremlin Army.
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