Moscow teens become Putin's cannon fodder.

For those who had already turned 18, the police found a quick way out. Instead of charges, they got draft notices, and some were pressured into signing contracts with the Ministry of Defense. The proof is a screenshot circulating on Telegram, supposedly from an Iranian TV broadcast. So imagine anyone showing up when Putin, the ultimate fair-weather friend, calls for backup. Musk is no longer an enemy and a target for ballistic missiles. Hello everybody and welcome. My name is Don Arleth and you're watching Break the Fake here on TVP World. When an empire runs out of volunteers willing to die for ideas it sells on TV, it falls back on cruder recruiting method, rounding up its own young people. In central Moscow, at a spot where teenagers traditionally hang out, police carried out a mass sweep. They weren't looking for dangerous criminals. They were after neofamily kids with alternative clothes and dyed hair. Somewhere between 100 and 300 young people were loaded onto police vans and many of them were minors. The so-called preventative operation followed the usual script. Detainees said they had been beaten and held for hours in vans and police stations without water or access to a bathroom. Neither the kids nor their frightened parents were ever told why they'd been picked up. Are you helping? Are you also a child? They say that there are children there, even 7-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 12-year-olds. Where are the 12-year-olds? 12-year-olds, there, in my opinion, there is also a child with a mother. 12 years old. We drove her for 9 hours. Do you have a daughter there? No, son. I can't go, I can't go. How old are you? 17 years old. And how did you pick her up? Now we will do it like this. Listen, we will go. Let's take a picture. For those who had already turned 18, the police found a quick way out. Instead of charges, they got draft notices, and some were pressured into signing contracts with the Ministry of Defense. The minors' families were luckier, but only in the sense that their children were released later. After a lesson in patriotism, delivered the old-fashioned way. Only after independent media raised the alarm did Moscow police offer a one-line explanation. Routine preventative measures. Apparently, teenagers with bright hair and unusual clothes are now a threat to national stability. Serious enough to need interrogation and a trip to the recruitment office. It's a convenient system, if you can't lure young people to the front with promises of big paychecks, you just grab them off the street and sign them up for the assault units. Moscow's alternative kids have now learned how it works. Nobody cares what music you like or how you dress. To the state, you're just one more body to fill the mobilization quota. Russia's propaganda machine has shown off its Photoshop skills again in another attempt to frighten Ukrainians. The latest viral fake claims that Iran has promised large-scale missile strikes on Kiev, Lviv, and Odessa if the United States attacks Tehran again. The proof is a screenshot circulating on Telegram supposedly from an Iranian TV broadcast showing a map of Europe with Ukrainian cities in red crosshairs. It fell apart at the first check with Google. The original Iranian broadcast never mentioned any attacks on Ukraine, and the map on the screen was completely different. Someone took the footage, added their own graphics, and marked Ukrainian regional centers, hoping to spread panic. The goal is simple, to build an image of an all-powerful axis of evil where every Kremlin-friendly And the country is eager to fire ballistic missiles at Lviv or Odessa. But you want to know the truth about Russia's allies? Being Moscow's friend is a one-way street. Russia takes North Korean troops and Iranian drones, but when its friends need help, the line goes dead. Quick roll call, Syria's Bashar al-Assad gone, Russia's big rescue is a one-way ticket to Moscow, Armenia, Russian peacekeepers watched as Azerbaijan took Karabakh, so Armenia called Washington instead, and Americans helped broker a deal with Azerbaijan. And in Venezuela, remember how the Russian Navy was supposed to sail to the rescue of Nicolas Maduro? Oh wait, that never His US forces flew him to New York instead, and Moscow sent a press release. And in Iran, while Israel and the US were pounding the mullahs' nuclear dreams, Russia stayed, you know, deeply concerned. So imagine anyone showing up when Putin, the ultimate fair-weather friend, calls for backup. As we've pointed out before, Kremlin propagandists have memories that last about one broadcast, and their principles change as fast as the talking points. This time, Vladimir Solovyov, the Kremlin's loudest TV host, cast himself as a caring friend and invited Elon Musk to move to Russia. His reasoning? After the Republicans' defeat in the US midterms, Musk, who had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Republican campaigns, supposedly faces persecution, investigations, and unbearable pressure. So Solovyov suggests a man with big ideas should pack his bags and seek shelter under the protection of Russia's security services. The main loser is Elon Musk. Because if Trump is going to be a big boss for two more years, and he can be right-wing, then Musk, who has invested half a billion of his money in this company, and who lost, most importantly, in the same state where he has the headquarters, he will directly fall under all kinds of investigations, terrible pressure. Elon, there are a lot of apartments in Rostov. So look, if anything... It's hard not to laugh at this sudden concern for the American entrepreneur. Just nine months ago, in the same studio, the same Solovyov was threatening the same billionaire air with total destruction. Back then, his trigger was SpaceX cutting off the Starlink terminals Russian troops had been using in Ukraine. Vladimir Solovyov demanded missile strikes on Musk's factories in the United States and destruction of his satellite network. I use gray schemes to buy Starlink, and at the front of our Starlink for some time the number of directions was many times larger than that of the Ukrainians. Elon Musk never hid that he... He is against Putin, as he said, and is fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I said, so you need to clearly understand that we are fighting not only with the NATO bloc, not only with Nazi Ukraine, but also with the nearby corporations, among which there is Palantir, among which there is X. And at the same time, Musk, obviously, is implementing his complex of unrecognized genius, No, because once in the beginning... He came to Russia, met with people who were engaged in space. They treated him like a madman, on whom you don't need to waste time. They talked to him extremely negligently, and this complex remained with him. Therefore, Elon Musk writes, as two mayors have clearly noted, it is important to register your Starlink terminals in Ukraine. Not even a year later, the man who wanted to bomb American factories and shoot down satellites has become a warm and welcoming host. Musk is no longer an enemy and a target for ballistic missiles. Now he's a visionary genius, whom those terrible Democrats won't let build the future. This whiplash from missile threats to offers of asylum shows how absurd Kremlin propaganda really is. In just nine months, we'll blow your factory to pieces turned into come stay with us. We'll give you a home. The bottom line hasn't changed, though. Musk has no idea his savior even exists. And Russia's top TV propagandist has to invent a new fairy tale every day just to fill airtime. Well, that's all the time we have on this edition of Break the Fake. Thank you for joining us and stay with us for more here on TVP World.