MC Kiselyov took the stage and dropped the mic once again.
Dmitry Kiselyov, a state television pundit famous for espousing anti-Western views during prime time, took on the role of a rapper during a New Year's comedy show.
Though he fully got into character — sporting a tracksuit, sneakers, a baseball cap and dance moves that included dabbing — Kiselyov’s rhymes stayed true to his politics.
“Europe with its lectures, [Russia] denounced by foreigners,” Kiselyov rapped on a state-run Rossiya-1 show that aired on Thursday. “But coolly and refusing to be provoked, we put our gas pipelines on your sanctions.”
A few bars later, the journalist commonly referred to as the Kremlin’s top propagandist, accused countries of “cutting ties with Russia, but it’s just grandstanding,”
“They may burn them all they want, we’ll keep building bridges,” Kiselyov rapped as computer graphics displayed him standing on the rail and car bridge that Russia built last year connecting the mainland to the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Kiselyov’s performance came a month after popular backlash to cancellations of hip-hop shows across Russia over allegations of extremism.
Kiselyov reprised his performance from one of his weekly news shows in December, when he unexpectedly spoke out in favor of Russian rappers and recited a verse authored by the Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.
President Vladimir Putin later weighed in on the show cancellations himself, arguing that the Kremlin should play a leading role in Russian rap music and youth culture instead of trying to shut it down.
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