Russian Commentator on State TV Laments That U.S. Has 'Stopped Fearing Us'

Russian political commentator Yevgeny Satanovsky has said that the country needs to re-instill the fear of the Soviet Union back into the United States.

Speaking on Russian State TV with Professor Dmitry Evstafiev, Satanovsky, who is the president of the Institute of the Middle East, complained that the U.S. no longer viewed Russia as the threat it once was.

The clip of their discussion has since gone viral on social media after being posted on Twitter on Tuesday by The Daily Beast's Julia Davis. The clip has been viewed more than 170,000 times.

Davis captioned the video: "Yevgeny Satanovsky lifts the veil on Russia's deep-seated insecurities, based on its desperate need to be feared—and its willingness to go to any lengths to terrorize its opponents."

Reflecting on many of the high-ranking individuals from around the West, Satanovsky said: "They are not interested in us. We only think we're 'big politics' for them but for those guys we're small politics.

"We're small politics, even though we think of ourselves as the descendants of the Russian Empire, of the USSR. We are not the Soviet Union, we don't have enough weirdos and lunatics, we practically don't have any."

Satanovsky then started speaking about the importance of having political figures who could inspire fear in Russia's enemies.

He also reflected on the differences between Nikita Khrushchev, the former premier of the Soviet Union between 1958 and 1964, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"They were deathly afraid of Khrushchev, but Putin is smart, cultured and patient," he continued.

"Nikita [Khrushchev] could say, 'We will bury you!' and everything was clear, this one will bury you. And what does Vladimir [Putin] say? He is polite, he speaks with caution. And they think 'Maybe he won't bury us. Maybe they think that if they're gone, so are we.'

"Those fanatical Communists have disappeared; this is the psychology of the people. They have to be afraid, horrified for themselves personally, not necessarily the country, the way they feared us in time of Andropov."

Satanovsky also said the U.S. could focus on smaller issues within the country now that it no longer fears Russia. He also insisted it could do this through weaker leaders like President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Satanovsky continued: "Why did the U.S. leadership get so unimpressive? They have no reason to exert themselves. They can completely delve into small intrigues. What about Russia? No need to pay attention to it.

"For them, Russia is a remnant of the Soviet Union. They stopped fearing us. When I think of this generation of old morons, with Biden as the height of the U.S. political thought and Trump as the second peak of the Mont Blanc, I don't even want to cry."

He added: "They preoccupied with intrigues, small intrigues that is more important for them than serious cadre. There's no one there to look for good leaders.

"This is not because they have regressed, although they have certainly regressed, but it's because they've stopped fearing us."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.