[Shcherbina screams into the phone after finding out why the West German robot failed within seconds of being deployed on Masha]
Boris Shcherbina: OF COURSE I know they're listening! I want them to hear, I want them to hear it all! Do you know what we're doing here? Tell those idiots what they have done!
[beat]
Boris Shcherbina: I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!
[beat]
Boris Shcherbina: Tell them, go tell them! Ryzhkov! Go tell Ligachyov! Tell fucking Gorbachev! Tell them!
[he smashes the phone to pieces in rage. Cut to Legasov and Tarakanov waiting outside; Shcherbina emerges from the trailer, dragging the broken phone behind him, and tosses it to the ground]
Boris Shcherbina: The official position of the State is that a global nuclear catastrophe is not possible in the Soviet Union. They told the Germans that the highest detected level of radiation was 2,000 roentgen. They gave them the propaganda number. That robot was never going to work.
[to a nearby soldier]
Boris Shcherbina: We need a new phone.
