In Thursday’s line speech broadcast live in train stations, movie theaters and other public places, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about Sweden’s and Finland’s decision to join NATO.
Russia is forced to strengthen its military presence in the western parts of the country because of that, he said, and that the threat from the US and the West creates a “real risk” of nuclear war.
But according to SVT’s reporter Maria Lapenkova, the biggest surprise in the speech was how little he talked about Ukraine.
– He said nothing new, but what stood out was how little he talked about security policy and Ukraine. It is because the Russian people have tired of the war. There are independent surveys that show that over 70 percent of Russians would support Putin if he made the proposal to start peace negotiations.
“Wants to create normalcy”
Most of the speech, Putin talked about domestic political issues – how he wants to support sports, small business owners and raise the minimum wage. Alexei Navalny was not mentioned at all in the speech.
– There was a lot that was not taken up. They want to create a form of normality. That the war does not affect life, says Johan Norberg, expert on Russian military capability and research leader at FOI.