Moscow/
At the beginning of his speech, Putin attacked NATO, whose member states he accused of forgetting what war is and provoking “conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East and other regions of the world.”
“They began to talk about the possibility of sending NATO military contingents to Ukraine, but we remember the fate of those who then sent troops to the territory of our country, and now the consequences for possible interventionists are becoming much more tragic be.” he emphasized. .
Putin stressed that Western powers must understand that Russia “also has weapons that can hit targets in its territories.”
“Everything they are coming up with now, with which they are frightening the whole world, all of it threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and thus the destruction of civilization,” he said.
He ruled out that the West will succeed with the old “trick” of involving Russia in a disastrous arms race.
At the same time, he ruled out that the West will succeed with the old “trick”, namely, that Russia will be drawn into a devastating arms race, for which the USSR spends 13% of the gross domestic product, while Moscow spends 6% on defense, % a year 2024.
“And they continue to lie. Now they claim without any shame that Russia supposedly intends to attack Europe. But we know full well that this is simply nonsense,” he explained, although he called for strengthening the Western military district to “neutralize” the threat of Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
“The implementation of all the plans set out today depends directly on our soldiers, officers, volunteers and all military personnel now fighting on the front lines. “Of the bravery and determination of our comrades in arms who defend the homeland,” he said in his address to both parliaments.
The speech, which lasted two hours and six minutes, setting a new record since his ascension to the Kremlin in 2000, was shown in cinemas in various regions of Russia as part of the election campaign.
Putin gave the most important speech of the year on the eve of the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose family, opposition and the West blame him for his death in prison two weeks ago.
Putin, who asked for a minute's silence to commemorate the fallen – more than 300,000 victims, according to NATO – stressed that soldiers are creating “the absolutely necessary conditions for the future of the country and its development.”
“We are a great family (…). I believe in our victories and successes, I believe in the future of Russia,” he announced to high-ranking officials, religious leaders and cultural figures who applauded him enthusiastically.
In return, he emphasized that the Russian units “firmly retain the initiative and are safely advancing in a number of areas, liberating more and more areas,” referring to the cities in the Donetsk region captured in recent weeks, especially the strategic one Bastion of Avdivka.
“It was not Russia that started the war, but we will do everything to end it”
“It was not Russia that started the war, but we will do everything to end it, eradicate Nazism and achieve the goals of the special military operation,” he said.
Putin, whose voting intention is at 79%, devoted almost his entire speech to campaign promises ahead of the March 17 presidential election in which he is seeking re-election to a fifth six-year term.
To this end, he promised that the government would allocate at least 75,000 million rubles ($825 million) to the 39 Russian regions with the lowest birth rates by 2030 and proposed raising the minimum wage to 35,000 rubles (nearly $400 million) per month.
“Supporting families with children is our fundamental moral choice. Families with large children must become the norm of our society's philosophy of life, the guiding principle of our entire state strategy,” he explained.
Although he insists that the economy – the largest in Europe by purchasing parity, according to Putin – has withstood the onslaught of Western sanctions, he also puts the number of poor people at 13 million, or 9% of the population.