Putin rails against West in state-of-the-nation address

Putin rails against West in state-of-the-nation address
Putin has continuously justified his invasion of Ukraine by accusing Western nations of threatening Russia. They say nothing could possibly be farther from the reality, saying that Moscow’s forces attacked Ukraine unprovoked.

“It’s they who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” Putin stated in a speech broadcast by all Russian state TV channels on Tuesday.

A TV display reveals Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the start of the navy operation in February 2022, subsequent to a cardboard cutout depicting a Russian soldier, at an exhibition devoted to the participation of Russian military within the navy motion in Ukraine within the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) (AP)
While the Constitution mandates that the president ship the speech yearly, Putin by no means gave one in 2022, as his troops rolled into Ukraine and suffered repeated setbacks. Now the tackle comes days earlier than the struggle’s first anniversary on Friday.

Before the speech, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that the Russian chief would concentrate on the “special military operation” in Ukraine, as Moscow calls it, and Russia’s financial system and social points. Many observers additionally count on the speech to handle Moscow’s fallout with the West.

Underscoring the anticipation, some state TV channels put out a countdown for the occasion beginning Monday, and Russia’s state news company RIA Novosti on Tuesday morning stated the tackle could also be “historic”.

Participants collect to hear Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual state of the nation tackle in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo through AP) (AP)

The Kremlin this yr has barred media from “unfriendly” nations, the listing of which incorporates the US, the UK and people within the EU. Peskov stated journalists from these nations will be capable of cowl the speech by watching the published.

Senior Russian lawmaker and chief of the nationalist LDPR get together Leonid Slutsky was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying that Putin will set priorities “that will deprive our enemies of the hope to defeat Russia, weaken it or try to subdue it to their neo-colonial leadership”.

Political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya stated the tackle “was expected to be very hawkish, aimed at defiantly breaking off relations with the West”.

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In the wake of US President Joe Biden’s go to to Kyiv on Monday, “additional edits can be made to make it even harsher”.

Peskov advised reporters that the speech’s delay needed to do with Putin’s “work schedule” however Russian media reviews linked it to the a number of setbacks Russian forces have suffered on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The Russian president had postponed the state-of-the-nation tackle in 2017. The speech was rescheduled for early 2018.

Last yr the Kremlin has additionally cancelled two different large annual occasions — Putin’s press convention and a extremely scripted phone-in marathon the place individuals ask the president questions.

Source: www.9news.com.au