The President of Russia, Vladimir Putinhas accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine to end Russia and has warned that his country “he is invincible on the battlefield“.
Putin offered this Tuesday his first State of the Federation address after the start of the war, almost a year ago. It has not acknowledged any errors or admitted any failures in the “special military operation”, nor has it made any novel announcements, except that Russia freezes its participation in the New START treaty. control of strategic nuclear weapons.
The Russian president has devoted most of his speech to internal issues, and has promised to protect the Ukrainian regions from Donetsk (which make up the Donbas), Zaporiyia and Jershon, that is, those unilaterally annexed by Moscow. And, as expected, he has only referred to Crimea as an integral part of Russia. But it has not indicated among its objectives the fall of the kyiv government or the conquest of all of Ukraine, nor has it set a date for the end of the conflict.
“They started the war”
For the Russian president, the West wants “a strategic victory” over Russia with a “global conflict”. “We are going to react accordingly because we are talking about the mere existence of our country, and Russia is invincible on the battlefield“.
Putin has referred to the open confrontation in Donbas (eastern Ukraine) since 2014, and has assured that Kiev was preparing new attacks, skipping the 2015 Minsk Agreement. “All of this was in contradiction with the decisions of the Security Council of the UN. They are the ones who started the war. We have used force to stop that war“.
“They are the ones who started the war. We have used force to stop that war“
Moscow feared that the next attack would be against Crimea and Sevastopol“and now Ukraine talks directly about it,” he said, referring to the proclamations of the Kiev authorities that speak of recovering all its territory.
“The anti-Russia project is revengeful – Putin added – they are creating nuclei of conflicts near our borders, just like in the 1930s, and the idea is to direct the aggression towards the East, through third countries. The people of Ukraine are held hostage by the kyiv regime and its Western masters.”
“Russia will answer any challenge because we are the same countrya great people, sure of our forces, because the truth is on our side”, the Russian president concluded his lengthy statement.
Accuses the West of “opening the way for the Nazis” in Ukraine
Only at the beginning and at the end of his nearly two hour speechPutin has addressed the West directly.
The rest of the intervention has been marked by the war in Ukraine, but aimed at domestic consumption, with promises and projects of future development of Russia (social, economic, financial); warnings to oligarchs who were used to taking money out of the country; and a vindication of the supposed “Russian character” against a West that he has characterized as decadent and corrupt (he has given homosexual marriage as an example and has assured that “pedophilia” is promoted).
“The West talks about democracy, but tries to impose its totalitarian values. It offends the leaders of other countries and tries to create a smokescreen about its own corruption and its economic, social and national problems. In the thirties of the last century, The West paved the way for the Nazis in Germany and now they are bringing that project to life in Ukraine.“.
“The West paved the way for the Nazis in Germany and now they are turning that project into life in Ukraine“
Likewise, he has accused Western countries of “inciting other countries to all kinds of problems” and recalled that the US “released the genie from the lamp”, in reference to jihadism, with the wars in the Middle East.
“The West has spent more than 150,000 million dollars to help Ukraine, but for the poorest countries, the big seven have only spent 60,000 million dollars,” the Russian president lamented.
Putin has also targeted “traitors” who “commit terrorist acts” and other crimes inside Russia. “But we will not dedicate ourselves to the witch hunt – he has assured – The important thing is that the Russians are proud that our multinational people and the majority of citizens have their own ideas about the special military operation, and they support our actions in Donbas and show their patriotism. It is a feeling of our people”.
Putin celebrates that the Russian economy resists sanctions
Putin has asserted that the Russian economy and finance is resisting sanctions and showing his strength.
“The West fights with us militarily, propagandistically and economically, but has not achieved anything. The sanctions have punished their countries: they increase prices, they close factories, the industry suffers and their citizens are told that it is the Russians’ fault,” he explained.
“The West fights with us militarily, propagandistically and economically, but has achieved nothing“
“Anti-Russian sanctions are a means – he stressed – and the objective is to force our population to suffer. They want the people to suffer, for our society to be destabilized from within. But the management of our economy turned out to be stronger.”
“They told us that the economy was going to sink 25-10%, then 2.9, 2.5. Total, that we have gone down, but only 2.1%,” he has boasted.
Putin’s economic discourse must also be read as a departure from the “wild” free market economy that ran rampant in Russia during the 1990s, after the breakup of the USSR and the privatization of a large part of public assets. The president recalled that time and regretted that “Western advisers” were listened to.
From now on, the economy, he has come to say, must be at the service of national interests. “The State has to control the economy, it is not a situation of free willbut not punitive legislation either,” he warned.
To do this, Putin has announced aid to families and companies; infrastructure plans (including highway corridors to Asia); investments in education and science and an invitation to Russian businessmen to invest in their country and thus replace the foreign capital that has left because of the war.
NATO responds: “Russia is the aggressor”
The responses to the Kremlin leader’s speech have not been long in coming.
The first reaction from Ukraine has come while Putin was still speaking. Mijailo Podoliakadviser to President Volodimir Zelensky, has written on Twitter that the Russian leader “has publicly demonstrated its irrelevance and confusion“. For Podoliak, the speech proves that Russia is at a “stalemate”, “it has no promising solutions and will not have any.”
“Nobody is attacking Russia. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim,” said NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, in an appearance in Brussels together with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba.
“Putin is preparing for war, for a new offensive, not for peace,” Stoltenberg added.
Biden: “The West is not aiming to attack Russia”
The president of the United States, who is in Poland after his surprise visit to Kiev, has responded to Putin’s accusations from Warsaw and has assured that, contrary to what the Russian leader says, “The West does not aim to attack Russia“and that neither the US nor the European countries intend to control or destroy Russia.
“West does not aim to attack Russia, as Vladimir Putin said today. Thousands of Russian citizens just want to live in peace with their neighbors, they are not the enemy,” Biden said to a crowd of spectators from the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
It has also ensured that war is “Putin’s decision” and that every day that the offensive continues is because the Russian leader so decides.
