Putin’s address to the deputies of the federal assembly, senators and deputies of the state duma of the russian federation on February 21 was expected both in russia and in Ukraine and the West. After all, the annual message to the federal assembly scheduled for December 2022 was canceled due to the “situation at the front”.
Analysts predicted that in today’s speech, putin is unlikely to announce measures to further escalate the war against Ukraine, a new wave of mobilization or anything else significant.
Indeed, most of the speech consisted of a number of clichés and standard accusations of russian propaganda methods towards Ukraine and the West.
Here are the main points from the speech of the russian dictator.
1. Putin began his address by stating that the “SMO” was deployed allegedly to “eliminate the threat of the neo-Nazi regime” and that “step by step we will carefully and consistently solve the tasks before us.”
2. The russian dictator repeated the learned mantras about “the threat of NATO and the West”, “supply of weapons to Ukraine”, “oppression of the people of Donbas” and that “it was they who started the war, and russia used force to stop it”.
3. Putin repeated the thesis of russian propaganda that “Western countries have been preparing Ukraine as “anti-russia” since the middle of the 19th century” and that “Ukraine is occupied economically, politically and militarily by Western countries, in particular the USA.”
4. The kremlin dictator once again declared that he is “not at war with the people of Ukraine”, and Ukrainians seem to have become hostages of the “Kyiv regime and its Western masters”. He also repeated his favorite thesis that the West seems to be trying to “separate from russia” the Ukrainian territories, which putin considers “historically russian”.
5. In addition, putin accused the West of trying to turn the war in Ukraine into a “phase of global confrontation.” They said that the elite of the West wants to inflict a strategic defeat on russia and “finish them once and for all.” Then putin announced the impossibility of defeating russia on the battlefield, which is why aggressive informational attacks are allegedly being conducted against russia — distortions of facts, attacks on culture and religion.
6. The president of the russian federation threatened to “expand the war” if the West provided Ukraine with long-range weapons.
7. The dictator was also outraged that Western priests are already blessing same-sex marriages, and promised to “protect russian children from such degradation.”
8. Putin also stated that the purpose of Western sanctions was to make russians suffer, but to destabilize russian society in this way apparently “failed.” He asserted the alleged “full support of the russians for the SMO”, thanked the “people, volunteers, soldiers, doctors, drivers, teachers” for a long time and promised to “immediately respond to the needs of the families of the fallen soldiers.”
9. The russian dictator spoke about the fact that the whole country is now working “for victory” and all “enterprises are increasing production.” And also about “huge prospects” in various fields, which are now supposedly “opening up in russia.” The russian federation does not seem to have the goal of developing a defense industry to the detriment of the economy, using the expression “guns instead of butter” belonging to the Nazi criminal Rudolf Hess.
10. Russia suspends its participation in the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons. At the same time, putin claims that “some figures in Washington are thinking about testing nuclear weapons,” but then moscow will also conduct them. He also added that the russian federation is not going to allow US inspectors into its nuclear facilities.
11. Kyiv authorities, according to putin, “do not serve national interests, but the interests of third countries.” The West uses Ukraine as a battering ram against russia and as a training ground.
❗️Putin’s message to the federal assembly publicly demonstrated the irrelevance and confusion of the russian dictator. In the best traditions of kremlin propaganda, he blames russia’s problems on Europe and Ukraine and renounces war. But in almost 2 hours of his speech, he did not announce any victories of the russian troops at the front, nor about the weakening or strengthening of the so-called “special military operation”, nor about a new wave of mobilization. Also, putin did not mention the tens of thousands of Ukrainians killed in the war and the dozens of destroyed cities.
The American side has already reacted to the speech. Jake Sullivan, US President’s national security adviser, called the russian dictator’s statements to the West “absurd”. He emphasized that the decision to start a war in Ukraine was the choice of putin himself and he can stop it. The representative of the White House separately noted the importance of continuing the supply of western weapons to Ukraine. “Russia stops the war in Ukraine and returns home – the war ends. But if Ukraine stops fighting, and the United States and the coalition stop helping it fight, then Ukraine disappears from the map,” Sullivan noted.
