London: Vladimir Putin’s rambling, almost two-hour state-of-the-nation address signalled little more than he is willing to let thousands of Russian citizens die on the battlefield and suffer at home for as long as it takes to carve up the Ukrainian state.
The Russian president’s speech to Russia’s federal legislature in Moscow, the first in two years, included everything from a bizarre attack on the West for provoking his invasion, ranting against same-sex marriage and a push to adopt a gender-neutral Bible within the Anglican Church.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he speaks.Credit:AP
It is hard take Putin seriously as a family friendly moral crusader when his troops have raped and pillaged their way across sovereign nations, his political opponents have been assassinated or incarcerated, and he continues to send thousands of young Russian men to a pointless death.
But in front of an audience of top officials, MPs and senators, as well as other members of the Russian elite, what became more apparent is that he is now determined to forever seal off Russia from what he believes are hostile or degenerate Western influences.
As Putin spoke, Russian shelling killed five people and injured 16 others in Kherson, the southern Ukrainian city that was liberated from Russian occupation in November.
A virtually empty Red Square closed prior to Vladimir Putin’s state of the nation address,Credit:AP
Putin announced he was halting involvement in the sole remaining arms deal between Moscow and Washington. The New START nuclear disarmament treaty, which was signed by Russia and the United States in 2010, capped the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and restricts the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
He said that Moscow would be ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if Washington did so.
The Biden administration had criticised the Kremlin for refusing to allow inspections, a demand that Putin said was absurd given the conflict in Ukraine. Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, with close to 6000 warheads.
Putin argued that he was forced into his decision, accusing the “Western elite” of seeking “to finish us off once and for all”.
Many of Russia’s top officials and state company executives are said to privately oppose the war, but have stayed in their posts and accepted it rather than speak out. Also in the audience were soldiers who had been injured on the battlefield, including one man from the pro-Putin All-Russia People’s Front movement, who was in a wheelchair.
Speaking hours before US President Joe Biden gave an address in Warsaw reaffirming a unified West’s determination to support Ukraine’s democracy, national independence and territorial integrity, Putin address made it clear that no end to the war is probable in the near future.
This, after all, was Putin telling his countrymen and women that Russia is under military, political, economic and cultural assault from the West – i.e America – and that Ukraine’s pro-western leadership is a pawn in its strategy.
The speech, which he postponed in December, coincided with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday. Russia has sustained huge losses in Ukraine but is expected to launch a new offensive in the spring.
It least 18,955 civilian casualties have been recorded, according to a report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Since the start of the invasion, 7199 civilians have been killed and 11,756 injured, but the organisation said that the actual figures are likely to be considerably higher.
Putin claimed Russia had tried to settle the conflict in the Donbas region by peaceful means but that the West’s commitment to peace turned out to be “fraud”, and a “cruel lie” and claimed Kyiv was trying to gather biological and nuclear weapons.
“We were doing everything possible to solve this problem peacefully, negotiating a peaceful way out of this difficult conflict, but behind our backs a very different scenario was being prepared.
“I want to repeat: it is them who are culpable for the war, and we are using force to stop it,” Putin said to great applause.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Putin’s announcement was “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible”.
But he said the United States would not change its compliance with the treaty, no matter what Russia did.
“I think it matters that we continue to act responsibly in this area,” he said. “It’s also something the rest of the world expects of us.”
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