President Vladimir Putin pledged to make Russia a “sovereign power” in a speech to the ruling party on Sunday, his first campaign speech before the March 2024 presidential election.
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“Russia will be a sovereign and self-sufficient power, otherwise it will cease to exist at all,” Putin said before senior United Russia party officials gathered at a congress to support his candidacy.
“Russia cannot, like other countries, give up its sovereignty for a few sausages and become someone’s satellite,” he said, apparently referring to Ukraine.
He accused the West of trying to “collapse the Russian economy and social sphere” and called on the country's “patriotic forces” to unite their efforts in the face of the “historic tasks” that await Moscow.
“Let us, together with the entire Russian people, defend Russia’s sovereignty, freedom, security, everything we care about, our history, our culture, our values and our traditions,” Putin said.
AFP
Vladimir Putin, whose country is hit by a series of Western sanctions and who sent his soldiers to attack Ukraine in 2022, announced last week his intention to run for a fifth time in the March 2024 presidential election.
There is little doubt that he will be re-elected, as any real opposition has been systematically eliminated in Russia in recent years.
The head of United Russia, former President Dmitry Medvedev, assured him on Sunday that his party “will do everything” to support Vladimir Putin's candidacy.
He welcomed the fact that Russia was able to withstand “the enormous pressure” from the West. “The response to the actions of our opponents was the resilience and unity of Russian society,” he said.
A victory for Vladimir Putin in March 2024 will allow him to “finally gain the upper hand over the forces that threaten the security and sovereignty of the country,” said the ex-president.