Russian state media mocked Trump by calling him ‘our Donald Ivanovych,’ and complained US politicians have lost their minds over attempts to impeach him

• Hosts and pundits on Russian state TV are mocking US President Donald Trump while opposing his impeachment, according to experts who monitor Russian media.
• “Have you lost your minds that you want to remove our Donald Ivanovych?” — the talk-show host Vladimir Soloviev sarcastically remarked about the impeachment proceedings, the Russian media analyst Julia Davis wrote in a piece for The Daily Beast.
• Questions have long been asked about Trump’s relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Russian state TV is keenly following the twists and turns of the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.

But according to Julia Davis, who monitors Russian media, pro-Kremlin media doesn’t want the president removed from office anytime soon.

“Have you lost your minds that you want to remove our Donald Ivanovych?” she quoted the TV host Vladimir Soloviev sarcastically remarking about the proceedings in a Wednesday article for The Daily Beast.

The host’s nickname plays on Trump’s full name, Donald John Trump, with “Ivan” the Russian form of John, and according to Davis is characteristic of the patronizing tone often struck by Russian pundits when discussing the US president.

Soloviev is a staunch defender of Russian President Vladimir Putin and on his show “Evening with Vladimir Soloviev” quizzes experts and politicians about developments in current affairs from a strongly pro-Kremlin stance. The show is broadcast on Rossiya 1, the country’s flagship TV network.

He came under scrutiny in July for helping to spread a doctored image on social media. The image was altered so that Putin was inserted onto an empty chair around which world leaders were gathered, including Trump, at the G20 summit. The image made Putin appear as the leader at the center of the summit.

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Cynthia Hopper, a professor of Russian history at the College of the Holy Cross, wrote in an article in October that Russian state media would spin coverage of the impeachment process to deride Trump and political divisions in the US, while echoing Trump’s criticisms of the Democrat-led impeachment investigation as a partisan hit job.

“This latest scandal, revolving around a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is a gift for those wishing to advertise US dysfunction without seeming to engage in heavy-handed censorship or promote obviously deceptive propaganda,” she said.