the president of Russia Vladimir Putin the live media event lasted a little over four hours. During the annual propaganda show, Putin answered questions from journalists and citizens. In this article, we collected the most important themes that emerged in Putin’s answers.
The same old propaganda claims about Ukraine
Putin focused on Russia’s war of aggression almost throughout the broadcast and referred to it at regular intervals.
At the beginning of the program, he said that Russia will continue to fight in Ukraine. However, Putin said that there is currently no need for wider mobilization in Russia.
– Peace will come when we achieve our goal, i.e. when we get Ukraine cleaned of Nazis and disarmed, said Putin.
According to Russian propaganda, there are Nazi forces in Ukraine who threaten Russians.
Putin continued to speak in the same belittling tone as before about Ukraine’s history and desires to break away from Russian control. Among other things, Putin described the attack as a “civil war”.
According to Putin, the war will be won with teachers and priests. Thus, Russia does not intend to stop the patriotic education of children and youth, but to continue it.
Putin gave a rosy picture of the war and conditions at the front. He suggested that there would now be 617,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine. According to Putin, last year, 486,000 people entered the service voluntarily, in addition to the 300,000 who were called up.
The president claimed that Russia had largely destroyed the military equipment that Ukraine received from Western countries, such as tanks. This is not true.
According to Putin, Russia will put 170 billion rubles, or about 2 billion euros, into the development of the occupied territories this year. In reality, development in Mariupol, for example, is very slow, and residents have reported problems on social media.
A prisoner swap with the US?
In the program, Putin presented three reasons for the war of aggression. First of all, according to him, the West tried to get Ukraine to join the military alliance NATO. Second, NATO expanded towards Russia’s borders. In addition, Putin presented the rescue of the Russians in eastern Ukraine as another reason.
In fact, in 2014, Russia invaded Crimea and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine. In 2021, Russia claimed that the regions of eastern Ukraine wanted to be annexed to Russia.
Putin does not see relations with the West improving. He accused the United States of ruining relations with Russia. Europe is only looking at the situation from the sidelines, he claimed.
An American journalist imprisoned in Russia also came forward By Evan Gershkovits and a former Marine by Paul Whelan situation. Putin suggested that Russia and the United States make them a prisoner exchange. In 2020, Whelan was convicted of espionage and Gershkovits is accused of spying for a foreign power. On the other hand, Putin accused the United States of not listening to Russia’s conditions for the prisoner exchange.
About halfway through the broadcast, Putin said he could talk to EU leaders, such as the French president Emmanuel Macron with. Putin blamed Macron for the rift between them. Putin lavishly praised his allies, for example the leader of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğanwho, according to Putin, is trying to bring peace to Gaza.
Expensive eggs and an invitation to IT professionals
In their questions, citizens brought up their own concerns, which were related to, for example, their residential areas, wages, gas prices and mortgages.
Surprisingly, one topic that broadly unites Russians at the moment came to the fore. One pensioner was worried about the rising prices of eggs and chicken meat.
Independently Russian media Meduzan eggs have become more expensive by 40 percent. The price increase is due to the Russian war of aggression and the labor shortage.
Putin’s explanation was that eggs have become more expensive because wages are rising due to inflation. He mentioned that he himself likes to eat eggs.
Putin blamed the situation on the stagnation of foreign trade and promised to improve the situation, for example, by cooperating with Asian countries.
Putin also unexpectedly proposed that Russia should try to get a monopoly in the development of artificial intelligence. The proposal was considered to be a call back to Russia for thousands of IT professionals who fled abroad after the attack began, so as not to end up on the front lines.
Slips in arrangements
The event apparently did not go completely according to the script.
At the press conference, there were large screens showing questions sent by people. On the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, next to Russia Francis Scarr pointed out in the message service X that a text message criticizing Putin slipped onto the wall screen a couple of times.
– Why is your reality different from the reality we experience, was asked in one message that went through, of which Scarr had taken a screenshot.
Putin also forgot part of his answer at least once when he started telling a story about his dead older brother, whom he never saw.
There were no instructions for the athletes from Putin
Putin did not give a direct answer to whether Russian athletes should participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Russian athletes will be allowed to participate in the Olympics if they compete without country symbols and do not publicly show that they support the invasion of Ukraine.
According to Putin, the International Olympic Committee’s IOC decision on the participation of Russian athletes endangers the Olympic movement.
– If they continue like this, they will bury the Olympic movement, said Putin.
There is nothing new in Putin’s point of view. In Russia, the decision made by the IOC last week to allow Russian athletes to participate in the upcoming Olympics was met with dismay.
Russian track and field athletes are currently unable to participate in prestigious international competitions due to the war of aggression and the doping program that was revealed in 2015.
Sources: Reuters, STT
Correction on 14 December 2023 at 19:02. Corrected a point in the article where it originally read talking about cleansing Ukraine of Nazis and neutrality. It would have been correct to talk about cleaning Ukraine of Nazis and disarmament.
Correction 14.12.2023 at 19.11. Corrected a point in the article where it originally read that Russia invaded Crimea and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine in 2018. The invasion took place in 2014.