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Santa Claus is shot out of the sky by a Russian air defence missile in a Christmas video published on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels.
The video, which shows Santa flying his sleigh over central Moscow, was circulating just a day after Russia was accused of shooting down an Azerbaijani passenger jet.
In the video, Santa’s sleigh is loaded with rocket-shaped gifts covered in the white compass rose emblem of Nato. “Hi Russians, here are your presents,” he says, while drinking Coca-Cola, before a missile tears across the sky and slams into his reindeer-dragged chariot.
The scene then cuts to a missile control centre where Grandfather Frost, the Russian version of Father Christmas, congratulates a young air defence operator for destroying the Western Santa.
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“We do not need anything foreign in our skies,” Grandfather Frost says.
‘For the last time’
According to the Moscow Times, an independent Russian newspaper, the video was first published by pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Pul N3.
Pul N3’s caption for the video read: “Santa Claus flies over Russia for the last time.”
It is not clear who produced the video, however, prominent Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov shared a clip on Telegram on Thursday featuring what appeared to be the same actor playing the same Grandfather Frost in the same costume.
In Solovyov’s video, Grandfather Frost brings a Russian soldier home to his family for New Year, which has been celebrated in Russia as a secular replacement for Christmas since the early Soviet era.
Solovyov said the video was part of a series that was gaining in popularity on social media.
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The videos circulated one day after an anonymous US official said the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 on Wednesday was likely caused by Russian air defences.
Azerbaijan’s transport minister and Azerbaijani Airlines said on Friday the plane suffered “external interference” before it crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
Dmitry Yadrov, Russia’s aviation chief, said as the plane was attempting to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.
Alternative airports
The captain was offered alternative airports to land at but chose to fly across the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan, Mr Yadrov added.
Some experts have said that holes seen in the plane’s tail section suggested it could have come under fire from Russian air defence systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, said: “An investigation into this aviation incident is underway and until the conclusions are made as a result of the investigation, we do not consider ourselves entitled to give any assessments.”
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