The state of the nation speech delivered yesterday by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, before both chambers (Duma and Senate) of the Russian Parliament, seemed at times like a déjà vu of his words a year ago from the same rostrum. As then, Putin blamed the West for the war in Ukraine, but also warned that NATO could provoke a nuclear war if it sent troops to the neighboring country. And he warned that Russia can also reach Western countries with its nuclear weapons.
The Russian president reacted without naming him to the controversial proposal of the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, who this week evoked a possible deployment of Western troops in Ukraine, an idea immediately rejected by many of the allied leaders.
If that happens, the consequences would be “tragic,” Putin warned. He also called accusations that Moscow plans to attack Europe “nonsense.” “They have begun to talk about the possibility of sending NATO military contingents to Ukraine, but we remember the fate of those who once sent troops to the territory of our country,” Putin said during the speech, recalling the failed attempts to invade Russia. by Napoleon and Hitler. “But now the consequences for potential interventionists will be much more tragic,” he said.
Deputies, senators and other representatives of the political and military elite gathered for the occasion at the Gostini Dvor congress palace, near Moscow’s Red Square. Among those attending were also soldiers who have fought these two years in Ukraine. Everyone listened and unanimously applauded a speech that lasted two hours and six minutes.
Putin described as “baseless” the accusations by the United States that Russia is preparing to deploy nuclear weapons in space. But he assured that Russian strategic nuclear forces are “in full combat readiness.” And he indicated that the new generation of Russian hypersonic nuclear weapons, which he first spoke about in 2018, are either already deployed or are in the final phase of development and testing.
It was another warning. Putin stressed that Western powers must understand that Russia “also has weapons that can hit targets in its territories.” According to him, “all this threatens [to create] a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t you understand?”
As in other public interventions, Putin stated that the goal of Western countries was “to bring disorder to our house and weaken it from within.” “But they have miscalculated. The cohesion of the peoples of Russia is a colossal victorious force,” he added.
He also accused the West of trying to trap Russia in an arms race like the one that ended up weakening the USSR in the 1980s during the Cold War. “They are trying to exhaust us, repeat the trick that worked for them with the Soviet Union. Therefore, our task is to develop the military-technical sector to increase the scientific, technological and industrial potential of the country,” he ordered.
“We need to distribute resources as rationally as possible and build an efficient economy of the armed forces, to achieve the maximum possible for every ruble spent on defense,” the president added.
Putin’s annual message to Parliament took place one day before the funeral and burial of prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly on February 16 in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving several sentences that together amounted to three decades. of deprivation of liberty.
Navalny’s allies, whose name Putin has always avoided saying in public, have denounced this week that their first intention was to celebrate the funeral on February 29, but it was not possible because it coincided with the Russian president’s speech. Ivan Zhdanov, one of Navalny’s collaborators in exile, said on Telegram on Wednesday that it was impossible to order mourning services for this day. And Navalni’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, denounced yesterday that “they call the brigades (of the funeral homes) strangers and threaten them so that they do not take Alexei’s body anywhere.”
Putin dedicated the initial part of his speech to talking about the war in Ukraine – which, according to Moscow’s official speech, began in 2014 –, Russia’s nuclear capabilities and relations with the West. “It was not Russia that started the war in the Donbass, but we will do everything possible to end it, eradicate Nazism and fulfill the objectives of the special military operation (in Ukraine),” said the Russian leader, using the expression with which Russia calls for military intervention in Ukraine that began two years ago, when Putin ordered his army to enter the neighboring country.
But most of the intervention was focused on the next Russian presidential elections, which will be held in two weeks, on March 15, 16 and 17, and in which Putin will undoubtedly achieve re-election and remain in power forever. until 2030. In addition to having 79% of the support, according to surveys, the other candidates are not true opponents.
Even so, Putin outlined social promises, such as plans to revitalize Russian infrastructure in the next six years and increase the minimum wage to 35,000 rubles (almost 400 euros).
The Russian president did not leave aside combating the demographic crisis, a constant in recent decades in Russia. Putin promised measures to increase birth rates (760 million euros for regions with lower birth rates) and support for large families. “Supporting families with children is our fundamental moral choice. “Large families must become the norm of the philosophy of life of our society, the guideline of our entire state strategy,” he declared.
