Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin will make an important announcement at a Defense Ministry meeting next week, according to Russian state media. “We are waiting for important statements,” said Pavel Sarubin, host of the “Moscow.Kremlin.Putin” program on state broadcaster VGTRK today. Putin will therefore chair the Defense Ministry’s extended annual meeting.
The exact date of the meeting is still unknown. However, Putin is expected in Minsk tomorrow for talks with Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.
Expansion of the war economy?
At a government meeting last week, the Kremlin chief had already asked that the armament plans be adjusted. It is possible that the 70-year-old will continue to push to convert his own economy to a wartime economy, as his own troops are still having problems with supplies during the aggressive war against Ukraine.
Because of the continuing hardships in the war, Putin has largely avoided the subject in recent weeks and has also canceled the traditional annual press conference just before Christmas.