Putin’s speech to the nation at Luzniki Stadium was punctuated by three unusual pauses and cut short before the end: a prompter failure or sabotage?
Who knows what the director will be…. The question that pops up on independent information sites, accompanied by the statutory disclaimer, we remind everyone that we are considered foreign agents, has a raison d’être.
The event at Luzniki Stadium to celebrate the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea will also be remembered for the bizarre interruption in Vladimir Putin’s speech.
But how can a carefully prepared gathering of hundreds of thousands and more people silence those who claim that there is not that much support for the invasion and skip everyone at the most important moment, the President’s speech?
Technical failure immediately said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman. Or sabotage denounced Alexei Navalny, the number one dissident who was arrested and put on trial. what everyone thought. But there is no proof.
The only thing that is certain is that it was a direct one with many disadvantages. Let’s rewind the tape. Putin begins at 4:20 p.m. Russian time on the stage in the middle of the soccer field where the 2018 World Cup final took place. Three and a half minutes later he pauses strangely in the middle of his speech. Almost unnatural, mid-sentence, about fifteen seconds.
Start talking again. Another short pause, this time ten seconds.
Then another, twenty seconds this time, and then he resumes the discourse, quoting for the second time the passage from the Gospel of John celebrating the heroism of the Russian soldiers and the unity of the country.
Two hypotheses. The first was that Putin was waiting for the applause, which was a long time coming. Unlikely given the composition of the crowd, which was carefully selected from among the President’s supporters and those summoned for the occasion. The second, more likely, was an error by the prompter – the teleprompter – which had four screens, one on each side of the stage, to scroll the text of the speech to be read to the speakers called onto the stage.
That wasn’t the only issue with a very bumpy live stream. During the introductory speech of Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the live broadcast was muted for at least 30 seconds. Not just his voice, but that of the whole stadium. Silent scene, only images.
Immediately after the incident with Putin, his speech was re-broadcast in full and without interruption on Russian television.
If it is indeed not sabotage, then Bianna Golodryga, of Moldovan origin, an international analyst for CNN, seems relevant. I can’t think of a more effective way to show the world how things will work in a post-Western tech Russia.
March 19, 2022 (change March 19, 2022 | 12:50)
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