“There will be peace if we achieve our goals. They haven't changed.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to show he is confident he can win the war, while Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has made desperate appeals to the West not to waver his aid. As the war enters its third year, the Russian leader hopes his rival will be abandoned and he can complete his conquests. “Today Ukraine produces almost nothing. They try to save something, but they produce almost nothing. You get everything for free. But these gifts might end one day. And apparently this is coming to an end,” said the Russian President on Thursday.
Putin wanted to convey to his people – and the West – that he was in control: for the first time since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he dared to hold his big annual press conference, in contrast to Other Occasionally, he has not made any relevant promises to win the support of the Russians: neither on the battlefield, where the front is stagnating, nor at the economic level, although pensioners make him look bad given the high prices of the product bases have multiplied many times . “Victory is on our side,” he warned.
The Russian president has reiterated that his goals are “the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine, its neutral status.” That is, take control of it. A few days ago, a former adviser very close to the Russian President, Sergei Markov, put it in other words when talking about the failure of the first offensive: “It was not well prepared. The idea was to change the political regime and establish effective control over most of the Ukrainian territory.” This Thursday, Putin assured that a large part of the neighboring country belongs to them: “The entire southeast of Ukraine has historically been Russian territory .” The entire Black Sea region passed into the hands of Russia as a result of the Russo-Turkish wars. “What does Ukraine have to do with it?” he declared during a more than four-hour press conference in which he also declared that Odessa was “a Russian city.” In the past, as part of his irredentist project, he wrote about Kiev itself to justify the war.
At another point in his speech, a doctor from Ukraine's occupied Zaporizhzhia region warned that his region needed at least twice as many specialists to care for civilians, including oncologists. “The doctor said: 'We don't have enough specialists and doctors, like in all of Russia.' That is, he perceives his region as part of Russia,” Putin emphasized with a smile, while imitating the quotation marks of a sentence with his hands.
This Thursday in Moscow, a woman walks in front of a screen showing a quote from Vladimir Putin at his annual press conference. MAXIM SHEMETOV (Portal)
The invasion of Ukraine also wears down the Russians. According to a recent poll by the independent Levada Center, 21% of the population asked their president: “When will the military operation/mobilization end?” Putin answered the second part of this question: “By the end of this year we will have around half a million fighters have – among the more than 300,000 recruited through last year’s conscription and volunteers.” Why do we need mobilization? “Today this is not necessary,” the president assured, although the attrition continues without a clear horizon and the Defense Department has warned that the mobilized and professional soldiers will not return home until the war is over.
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“Our armed forces are improving their position along the entire line of contact,” the President assured in his speech. According to their information, the Russian contingent in Ukraine currently amounts to 617,000 combatants. By the way, the Kremlin also denied that there would be any mobilization weeks before the order in September 2022. Despite Putin's triumphalism, war correspondents from pro-Kremlin media have argued with him about the actual situation at the front. Pervyi Channel journalist Dmitri Kulko warned the Russian president that his troops did not have enough drones. “You can’t help but see that the situation – on the front line – is improving. This is true? Tell me it’s true,” Putin asked the reporter. “It’s improving, yes,” Kulko replied.
“We still have a front line of almost 2,000 kilometers,” Putin added. “Of course, not everything may be delivered on time, but our production is growing and a lot is purchased abroad, including privately. The state, the Ministry of Defense and industry are working actively,” the Russian president affirmed.
This group photo distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik shows Russian President Vladimir Putin at his end-of-year press conference in Moscow this Thursday.VLADIMIR GERDO (AFP)
“Putin sides with the Defense Ministry and rejects criticism, clearly distrusting what Kulko is telling him. Very insightful,” said political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya. “A strange intervention from electoral logic. Putin argues with everyone, justifying the authorities and calling serious problems “technical errors.” “This means that Putin will not flatter the people and does not feel politically vulnerable,” said the founder of the analysis center R.Politics on social networks.
For Putin, the war in Ukraine will not be the end. The Russian leader repeatedly emphasized in his speech the need for “patriotic-military” training in schools attended by fighters arriving from the front. “Wars are not won by generals, but by teachers and priests,” said the Russian president, who claimed to have quoted Otto von Bismarck, a 19th-century German chancellor.
Price rises
The event, titled “Annual Review,” was the first to combine Putin's annual press conference with his Hotline, another event he held once a year in which he answered selected questions from his citizens. The president has assured that the country has the means “to move forward” and has announced that gross domestic product will grow by 3.5% this year, although he has not declared that Russia has mutated into a war economy the state spends a third of its budget on defense and security. “Unfortunately, we have inflation of 8%,” Putin added, knowing he would be asked about the rise in prices, one of citizens’ big concerns.
Their official figures clash with the perception of Russians themselves. “There have never been such prices,” Irina Akopova, a pensioner, told him live before checking the cost of various staples. “Prices have shot up three times (…) We don't get a pension worth millions,” he complained, before becoming increasingly louder and denouncing that “there is no one to turn to.” The president responded that his ministers reiterated that “everything is fine,” which drew some laughter from the hundreds of guests at the event.
Where the Russians see problems, there are opportunities, says the president. The central bank raised interest rates to 15% a few weeks ago due to the ruble's devaluation, and Putin said Thursday that this is “good news for those who want to keep their money in Russian banks.” He also stressed that unemployment has reached a historic low of 2.9%, although companies denounce that the lack of workers due to the crisis, mobilization and exile poses a problem for maintaining their activity and this leads to higher – and therefore higher salaries lead to inflation.
Putin, during the first annual press conference for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine began.SPUTNIK (via Portal)
Putin's health also caused criticism during the event. The conference lasted more than four hours, although Putin coughed constantly from the first minute, a common feature of his speeches in recent years. “Sorry, the air conditioning is annoying,” he apologized.
The Russian leader is virtually guaranteed a fifth term in office next year, which by 2030 would amount to three decades at the country's helm. During his speech, Putin joked about suppressing the opposition. Asked whether there was a witch hunt against Alexandra Bayazitova, a journalist sentenced to 14 years in prison for alleged extortion, the president summed up the persecution suffered by his rivals with this comment: “Don’t go too far .” What did? Is he an important opposition figure to pursue?”
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