Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Earlier this year, he advocated targeting US ships with torpedoes.
A prominent Russian lawmaker has sparked outrage with extreme comments about Ukraine.
The Moscow Times reported on July 7 that State Duma Deputy Aleksey Zhuravlyov supported wiping out large numbers of civilians.
He suggested that destroying up to half the population of Ukraine is acceptable to eliminate political enemies.
The politician spoke during an interview with blogger Ivan Mironov. Zhuravlyov claimed the number of individuals he considers fascists in Ukraine has grown from two percent to nearly thirty percent.
“All Nazis must be exterminated. All of them. You understand, even if it’s fifty percent—even fifty percent—they should be exterminated… So that this infection doesn’t exist there, so that no one threatens us,” Zhuravlev stated.
Redefining the enemy
The lawmaker laid out a simple standard for identifying targets. Anyone carrying a weapon should be dealt with immediately. He stated that if a person has an automatic rifle, they must be destroyed.
Zhuravlyov added that citizens who refuse to alter their views must face severe consequences. “If you don’t want to change your tune, you must either be expelled from there or destroyed,” the lawmaker said.
This rhetoric fits a larger pattern of language coming from Moscow. Russian state propaganda has altered the meaning of historical terms to target anyone supporting an independent Ukrainian identity.
The Kremlin uses these labels against citizens who promote their own culture or seek European integration.
Well-known hardliner
Aleksey Zhuravlyov is the chairman of the Rodina party in the Russian State Duma and is known for his militarist and hawkish views.
In January 2026, Zhuravlyov suggested attacking U.S. ships with torpedoes “or sink a couple of American boats,” following the seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker in international waters.
On February 22, 2022, he was among the 351 members of the State Duma sanctioned by the European Union after voting to recognize the separatist republics in Ukraine.
Ongoing military pressure
By using these intense labels, officials try to make a war of aggression look like a defensive necessity. This helps reinforce official wartime goals for audiences at home.
These harsh words come even as the country’s top leadership discusses the future of the campaign.
In May 2026, Russian leader Vladimir Putin stated that the full-scale invasion was moving closer to its final stages. He claimed his forces were advancing in multiple directions but did not provide a specific timeline for the war to end.
