“Weapons based on new physical principles will guarantee the security of any country in the next historical perspective.” We understand it very well and are working on it,” recalled Vladimir Putin’s announcement at the eighth Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia’s Far East of speeches from more than seventy years ago. Weapons as a deterrent, as a last defense before a war: back then it was atomic bombs, today, reports the Russian agency Tass, there are lasers, ultrasound and high-frequency weapons. A warning addressed to the West defined Kiev as a puppet master: “They are pushing Ukraine to control as much territory as possible and then start negotiations.” Then the hypocritical accusation against NATO, which for Putin represents the real obstacle to the negotiations: “ They must ensure that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decree banning talks with Moscow is repealed.”
Since the beginning of the year, 270,000 volunteers have been enrolled
In Vladivostok we are not just talking about hypothetical negotiations. The occasion also serves to remind Putin of the forces that have been deployed on the ground since the beginning of the year and have been crucial in containing the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has encountered many difficulties: “In the last six to seven months 270,000 men volunteered. And between 1,000 and 1,500 are still arriving every day,” explained the Russian head of state. According to the president, 71,500 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of June, the date of Kiev’s counterattack. An offensive “that didn’t lead to any results,” he commented. And according to national and international media, the summit organized with Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will deal precisely with the war. Moscow will ask Pyongyang for ammunition, an essential raw material for carrying out military operations in Ukraine.
Trump card? “Haunted by politics”
At the Vladivostok Economic Forum there is also talk of the American elections in 2024, which will likely see a repeat of the Trump-Biden challenge. Over the years, Donald has repeatedly been compared to the Russian leader as a friend, and Putin’s comments seem to confirm this closeness: “The judicial investigations against him are political persecution.” However, he immediately recalls denying hypothetical links to the American tycoon : “Trump has imposed more sanctions on Moscow than anyone else.” “There will be no fundamental changes in US policy toward Russia.”
“The tanks in Budapest and Prague were a mistake”
Not just nuclear deterrence. In Putin’s words, the past returns in the form of excuses: “This part of the Soviet Union’s policy was wrong and only led to the escalation of tensions.” The USSR behaved like a colonizing country.” The reference refers to the Soviet invasion of Budapest and Prague with tanks when the Red Army used force and marched on the capitals to put down the uprisings in 1956 and 1968 respectively.
(on the cover photo by Mikhail Metzel for Ansa)
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