Solovyov Live presenter Sergey Karnaukhov. Photo: Telegram
A presenter on a flagship Russian TV propaganda show has said on air that the wives of veterans of the war in Ukraine should kiss their husbands’ feet and put up with acts of violence when they return from the frontline, journalist and former presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak revealed on Monday.
During the programme, Solovyov Live, the conversation turned to the situation surrounding the family of a wounded war veteran, who had returned from the frontline with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), begun to drink heavily and was violent towards his wife.
Co-host Anastasia Kashevarova explained that she too was the wife of a serviceman with PTSD, and said that while she had chosen not to seek a divorce or walk away from the marriage, she nonetheless conceded that the situation was “very difficult”. Fellow host Sergey Karnaukhov was outraged by her comments, leading to an angry exchange between the two.
A dumbfounded Kashevarova asked, “So if you are a hero, does that mean I have to kiss your feet, while you torment me and my child?” To which Karnaukhov answered, “Yes, kiss their feet,” explaining that servicemen had gone to give their lives for the motherland. He then expressed horror at the idea of a wife leaving her husband in such circumstances, amazed that the question should arise at all.
Kashevarova then went further, asking if a wife also had to accept domestic violence or other forms of disrespect at the hands of her veteran husband with PTSD. Karnaukhov answered that a wife should accept that and help her husband.
Algoritm Sveta, a Russian project that monitors domestic violence statistics, estimates that 70% of Russian women murdered in 2020 and 2021, the last years for which figures are available, died at the hands of their partners or relatives. Under existing laws, battery of a family member only qualifies as a crime if it is a repeat offence.
