'It's all because of Putin': Russian spoof of Western blame game

Under guise of wishing other parts of Europe a happy festive season, this 1'17" parody takes a cheeky sideswipe at the Western tendency to blame everything negative on Russia and/or President Vladimir Putin. Bearing the badge of Russian news channel RT - no stranger to creating light-touch comments on serious subjects - it predictably stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest across the media, social and otherwise. Loosely speaking, reactions appear to range from 'brilliant parody' to 'dangerous propaganda', with a sprinkling of uncertainty about what it reflects about Russia's real stance. Culturally, Russia has strong European ties and identity, with about 25% of its land in Europe and 75% in Asia. In a contrasting approach, the secretary general of military organisation NATO, Mark Rutte, warned its member states in December 2025 that they are "Russia's next target" and said they "need to be ready". Speaking at a security conference in Berlin, Rutte said the bloc must make all efforts to prevent a war "on the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured". (https://youtu.be/Pq2RbAPE0pU?si=Uogp9qRlnpuDmidQ) In a subsequent address, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that European ambitions risk escalating the Ukraine conflict. (https://youtu.be/Pq2RbAPE0pU?si=Uogp9qRlnpuDmidQ) He stated that any European troops deployed to Ukraine could become legitimate targets for Russia’s forces. Lavrov also accused European leaders of ignoring the welfare of their own people, while stressing Russia has no plans to go to war with Europe. How does it all gel with the (perhaps) ruefully humorous twist of this festive parody? What/whom do we really need to fear?

Keywords: RT 'It's all because of Putin', Russian parody of Western Europe, RT news channel, political parody, European conflict