‘He croaked suddenly': How Russian media is spinning close Trump aide senator Lindsay Graham's death
Lindsey Graham's death has become the subject of a conspiracy campaign by Russian state media, which links his passing to his recent visit to Ukraine
Russian media outlets have amplified conspiracy theories surrounding the death of US Senator Lindsey Graham, suggesting a link between his passing and his recent trip to Ukraine, despite preliminary medical findings indicating aortic dissection due to cardiovascular disease. Prominent Russian state media figures, including TV host Vladimir Solovyov and RT News head Margarita Simonyan, questioned the timing of Graham's death shortly after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with Solovyov speculating he "croaked" after threatening Russians and Simonyan implying he "knew too much." An RT article by historian Tarik Cyril Amar also criticized Graham as a "monster" obsessed with war, while other Russian publications like Regnum and Zvezda suggested connections to strikes on Kyiv's military-industrial complex or the implications of his meetings with Zelenskyy, overlooking the official cause of death and focusing on Graham's strong advocacy for Ukraine and his adversarial stance towards Russia, which had previously led to a Russian arrest warrant against him.
Russian media outlets have amplified conspiracy theories surrounding the death of US Senator Lindsey Graham, suggesting a link between his passing and his recent trip to Ukraine, despite preliminary medical findings indicating aortic dissection due to cardiovascular disease. Prominent Russian state media figures, including TV host Vladimir Solovyov and RT News head Margarita Simonyan, questioned the timing of Graham's death shortly after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with Solovyov speculating he "croaked" after threatening Russians and Simonyan implying he "knew too much." An RT article by historian Tarik Cyril Amar also criticized Graham as a "monster" obsessed with war, while other Russian publications like Regnum and Zvezda suggested connections to strikes on Kyiv's military-industrial complex or the implications of his meetings with Zelenskyy, overlooking the official cause of death and focusing on Graham's strong advocacy for Ukraine and his adversarial stance towards Russia, which had previously led to a Russian arrest warrant against him.
Russian media outlets have amplified conspiracy theories surrounding the death of US Senator Lindsey Graham, suggesting a link between his passing and his recent trip to Ukraine, despite preliminary medical findings indicating aortic dissection due to cardiovascular disease. Prominent Russian state media figures, including TV host Vladimir Solovyov and RT News head Margarita Simonyan, questioned the timing of Graham's death shortly after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with Solovyov speculating he "croaked" after threatening Russians and Simonyan implying he "knew too much." An RT article by historian Tarik Cyril Amar also criticized Graham as a "monster" obsessed with war, while other Russian publications like Regnum and Zvezda suggested connections to strikes on Kyiv's military-industrial complex or the implications of his meetings with Zelenskyy, overlooking the official cause of death and focusing on Graham's strong advocacy for Ukraine and his adversarial stance towards Russia, which had previously led to a Russian arrest warrant against him.
As US President Donald Trump mourns the death of his close aide Senator Lindsay Graham, the Russian media has given it a conspiracy twist, pouncing on the fact that Graham died shortly after he returned from his Ukraine trip.
While preliminary findings by the Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia state that the 71-year-old Senator died from aortic dissection due to Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, a leading Russian media outlet stated that his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the reason for his shocking death.
State TV host Vladimir Solovyov said: “Lindsey Graham croaked today. Maybe I should speak the way Christian traditions demand, but I won’t. He croaked suddenly. Only yesterday in Kyiv, he gleefully threatened all Russians with death and called for terrible sanctions against us. He has flown back to America and croaked—all of a sudden.”
Solovyov repeated, “He came back from Kyiv and suddenly croaked, I don’t know why.”
Solovyov was hosting a show with RT News head Margarita Simonyan when he made the remark. To his words, Simonyan said: “This is why.” Solovyov went on to claim that the South Carolina senator may have “asked Zelenskyy for more money” or perhaps “he knew too much.”
“As for the future, it’s murky… It’s hard to predict who is the next in line to die after Lindsey Graham,” she added.
Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, also launched a scathing attack on Graham in his piece that appeared in RT News. Calling him a monster, Amar said Graham was obsessed with brutalising as many other countries and societies as possible. “He could not see an opportunity for a war and not do his worst to make it happen. Graham’s record of warmongering is so extensive that it is hard to reproduce it in its entirety,” he added.
Political analyst Vasily Vakarov said that "in the past, many officials who visited Ukraine and shook hands with Zelensky soon resigned," and in Graham’s case, "Zelensky said he had met with him twice recently."
Another news website, Regnum, published an article titled "Online users see link between Graham’s death and strike on Kyiv’s military-industrial complex."
Russian state-owned national TV network run by the Russian Ministry of Defence, Zvezda, published a piece based on the views of Dmitry Solonnikov, director of the Institute for Modern State Development, who suggested the Kyiv trip could have caused the death. “The politician might have been told something terrible; he might not have survived the conversation with Ukraine," Solonnikov said.
Lindsay Graham, an enemy-turned-friend of Trump and a Congressman, had been one of the loudest voices from Washington, advocating for stronger financial support for Kyiv's military, calling for the assassination of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, pushing for tougher sanctions on Russia, and offering unwavering support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In 2023, Russia had even issued an arrest warrant for him after a video surfaced of Graham allegedly celebrating the death of Russian troops. The senator had defiantly reacted to this, stating that he would wear Russia’s arrest warrant as a “Badge of Honour.”