According to a Russian lawmaker, gay sex is the only explanation for tinted car windows.
From predicting Ukraine’s “non-existence” to claiming tinted car windows signal homosexuality, Russian officials have spent the year delivering a steady stream of inflammatory and at times absurd statements.
What follows are the five most striking examples – a revealing snapshot of the Kremlin’s rhetoric in 2025.
“Ukraine will cease to exist”
In early January, former Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev claimed that Ukraine could “cease to exist in 2025.”
On Jan. 14, Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda outlet published an interview in which he also rejected the idea that Russia might return any of its occupied territories to Ukraine during future negotiations.
“The Ukrainian people remain close to us, fraternal, and bound by centuries-old ties to Russia, no matter what Kyiv propagandists obsessed with ‘Ukrainianism’ claim to the contrary. We care about what’s happening in Ukraine,” he said.
“It’s especially troubling that the forced coercion of neo-Nazi ideology and rampant Russophobia are destroying once-thriving Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Dnipro,” he added.
Then he made the prediction.
“It’s possible that Ukraine will cease to exist altogether this year,” he said.
Patrushev added that the illegal votes held in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine in September 2022 supposedly “legitimized” Moscow’s claims to territory in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
He also made a similar threat toward Moldova:
“I don’t rule out that Chisinau’s aggressive anti-Russian policy will lead to Moldova either becoming part of another state or ceasing to exist altogether. In this situation, we can look to the example of Ukraine, where neo-Nazism and Russophobia led to the country’s collapse, long before the Special Military Operation (SVO).”
“Work for America first and foremost, grandpas!”
At the end of July, a public spat broke out on social media between US President Donald Trump and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.
Trump announced he was shortening the 50-day ceasefire deadline he had previously set to 10-12 days. Medvedev responded by lambasting Trump.
“Trump is playing ultimatums with Russia: sometimes 50 days, sometimes 10… Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step toward war. And not between Russia and Ukraine, but with your own country. Don’t follow Sleepy Joe’s path!” he wrote on X.
Medvedev then clashed with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who commented on the post and urged Trump to remain firm and push Russia to the negotiating table.
“It’s not for you or Trump to dictate when to ‘sit at the negotiating table.’ The negotiations will end when all the goals of our military operation are achieved. Work for America first and foremost, grandpas!” Medvedev hit back.
Trump later replied with a warning of his own by addressing Medvedev as “the failed former President of Russia.”
“Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!”
Medvedev said Trump’s comments only reinforced Moscow’s belief that it should stay the course.
“If some words from the former president of Russia trigger such a nervous reaction from the high-and-mighty president of the United States, then Russia is doing everything right and will continue to proceed along its own path,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
He also warned Trump to remember “how dangerous the fabled ‘Dead Hand’ can be,” referring to a secretive, semi-automated Russian command system designed to launch the country’s nuclear missiles if its leadership were killed in a decapitation strike.
“Pay, my dears, the tax for a dignified old age if you don’t want to have children”
In July, Russian State Duma lawmaker Andrei Gurulev said Russia should introduce a special tax to ensure a “dignified old age.”
He recalled a conversation with the former governor of Zabaikalsky Krai, Ravil Geniatulin, in which he raised the question of who should support people in old age if they chose to live only for themselves and not have children.
“Why should the state fulfill these obligations? Then pay, my dears, the tax for a dignified old age if you don’t want to have children.”
A tax on childlessness already existed in the Soviet Union – a “tax on bachelors, singles, and small families” introduced in November 1941. It required childless men aged 20-50 and childless married women aged 20-45 to pay 6% of their salaries to the state.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Gurulev – also a retired lieutenant general – has also called for striking the Motherland Monument in Kyiv and has advocated reviving the Stalin-era label “enemy of the people.”
In October 2023, speaking on a federal TV channel, he referred to the portion of the population opposed to Russia’s so-called “special military operation” as a “tiny percentage of rottenness that should be exiled to Kolyma.”
He also suggested “if not isolating, then somehow eliminating” the 20% of people who did not support Vladimir Putin – at a time when the Kremlin claimed the president’s trust rating was 80%.
“What does a driver do in a heavily tinted car? Fornication with a same-sex partner”
In early August, State Duma lawmaker Vitaly Milonov claimed that heavily tinted car windows are a sign of homosexuality.
“What does a driver do in a heavily tinted car? The answer is obvious: Sodomy. Fornication with a same-sex partner,” he said.
Milonov also argued that the desire to install a tinted windshield, together with a “drilled-out rear exhaust,” indicates sexual deviance. He announced that he would file a complaint with the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate to “prevent young people from falling into the abyss of sin.”
He later dismissed his remarks as humor.
“It’s a joke. Everyone, except those without a sense of humor, understands this perfectly well,” Milonov said.
“For one torn child, I’m ready to douse all dog owners with gasoline and burn them”
At the end of March, State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Arefyev endorsed another lawmaker’s proposal to use stray dogs for producing soap – and went even further, saying he was ready to “douse all dog owners with gasoline and burn them” if a child was attacked by an animal.
“I don’t like people who love dogs but don’t love children. When dogs tear children apart, they enjoy it. But if they enjoy it, then they can’t be considered human beings... I will protect people by all means – from dogs, from fascists, from anyone,” Arefyev said.
“Millions of animals suffer, but for some reason people only protect dogs that tear people apart... In Stavropol, a nine-year-old girl was torn to shreds. For one torn child, I’m ready to douse all dog owners with gasoline and burn them,” he added.
His comments triggered widespread backlash. Russian Senator Andrei Klishas said Arefyev should be held accountable for his words, while Elena Drapeko of the State Duma Ethics Committee condemned the remarks.
“This is absolutely horrific. He’s an idiot, what can I say? I believe this expression is completely inappropriate for a politician, for a lawmaker. You need to think about what you’re saying,” she said.