Russian Politician 'Fantasizes' About Kidnapping Western Officials Visiting Kyiv

Russian politician Oleg Morozov said on national television that he fantasizes about kidnapping foreign government officials heading to Kyiv to meet up with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenksy.

Morozov, a member of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, appeared on state-owned TV channel Russia-1 talking to a panel about his dream of kidnapping Western leaders.

In a clip from the TV program shared on social media and provided by Russian Media Monitor, Morozov can be seen addressing a panel including five other people, one of which is the host.

"I've come up with a fairy tale scenario, that at some point in the near future, some military official of a NATO country will travel to meet with Zelensky on a train to Kyiv—and never get there," Morozov says. "But they instead will wake up somewhere in Moscow."

TV host Olga Skabeeva then asks if the Russians will conduct the kidnapping of the Western leaders. Morozov confirmed that would be the case.

"Yes. And then we'll figure out which orders he has given, what he's responsible for," he adds, as the other panelist smile at his words.

"By the way, I don't think it's so far-fetched," Morozov adds. "We got used to the world functioning a certain way, but after the 24th [of February] it works differently. There are new rules in this world. Any military official that wants to go to Kyiv tomorrow should think about whether he may wake up in Moscow."

When another panelist ironically suggested that some Western leaders might actually "dream of waking up in Moscow," Morozov replied that they certainly don't dream of facing trial in Moscow. It's unclear what potentially kidnapped Western leaders could be put on trial for, and Morozov did not specify.

Throughout the clip recording Morozov's unrestrained monologue, one of the show's guests can be seen picking his nose whenever the camera turns towards him. It is not known when the talk show was broadcast.

Host Skabeeva then incorrectly mentions that the last Western representative to visit Kyiv was the British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. According to her, Wallace said "Russia is a rightful target for Zelensky," likely referring to an interview Wallace gave with the BBC in late April, when he said Kyiv had the right to attack Russian logistics targets.

Skabeeva then mentioned the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who visited Kyiv with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 24. The references suggest the clip might not be very recent, as since then Zelensky has received another Western leader, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who met the Ukrainian president on May 26.

Since the beginning of the war, these are some of the Western politicians and leaders who have traveled to Kyiv: the prime ministers of Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia Mateusz Morawiecki, Petr Fiala and Janez Janša (the first leaders to visit Ukraine's capital); U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson; Blinken and Austin; U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a delegation of fellow Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), John Barrasso (Wyo.) and John Cornyn (Tex.).

Other visitors have included European Union leaders Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell; Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer; Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; U.S. First Lady Jill Biden; and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.