Putin’s Mouthpiece Launches Kids’ Propaganda Show

Proverbs 22:6 “Catch them young and they will be yours forever.”

Vladimir Solovyov, the Rossiya 1 TV channel’s rabid propagandist – the Kremlin’s leading advocate notorious for his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric – is branching out into children’s television.

However, this will not be a “Sesame Street” style touchy-feely amusement, it will have a serious political message.

Its intent is made patently clear in Solovyov’s announcement on Telegram on Wednesday, where he proudly announced that “It’s time to rethink children’s television… political awareness begins in infancy… patriotism is instilled from an early age, and analytical thinking is developed even before first grade.”

“‘Sandbox’ is not just a program – it will be a master class on the current [political] agenda in a format understandable to children. Where else can kids discuss geopolitics with the same ease as conflicts over a shovel in the sand?” he wrote.

A review of the first broadcast by The Moscow Times highlights how the Russian view of “the subtleties of geopolitics” is portrayed by pre-pubescent versions of world leaders – including Russian leader Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and (for some reason) billionaire Elon Musk.

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Solovyov posted a video clip from the program that shows the “baby presidents” discussing a proposed “vacation in Istanbul on May 15.”

The TV show follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s October declaration that educating Russia’s citizens in the necessary “core values” should begin from preschool age – a statement that was allegedly inspired by Nadezhda Vorontsova, a kindergarten teacher in Vologda, who had initiated a program in her creche called “Conversations about What’s Important,” according to the Agentsvo news channel.

As a result, Russia’s Ministry of Education set up a working group of teachers, psychologists and scientists to design a course based on her initiative.

By January, a pilot program was introduced in all 78 kindergartens in the Vologda region – a likely precursor for its introduction nationwide.