In a speech that lasted close to two hours as the war in Ukraine completes a year, Russian president Vladimir Putin reiterated what he has been saying time and again: The West was to be blamed for the offensive. He delivered a nuclear warning to those backing Kyiv, suspended a bilateral nuclear arms control treaty and aired some of his conservative views.
Here are the key takeaways from Putin’s state-of-the-nation address.
Russia is ‘suspending participation in New START treaty’
In the long speech, Putin made one major announcement: Moscow is suspending Russia’s participation in the New START arms control treaty. The last remaining nuclear arms deal between Moscow and Washington was extended for five years in 2021.
“I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,” Putin told his country’s political and military elite.
The arms deal limits the number of nuclear warheads the world’s two biggest nuclear powers can deploy.
Vladimir Putin arrives to give his annual state-of-the-nation address in Moscow. In a long address, he once again blamed the West for the war in Ukraine. AP
The Russian leader said, without citing evidence, that some people in Washington were thinking about resuming nuclear testing. Russia’s defence ministry and nuclear corporation should therefore be ready to test Russian nuclear weapons if necessary, he said, according to a report in Reuters.
“Of course, we will not do this first. But if the United States conducts tests, then we will. No one should have dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be destroyed,” Putin said.
Also read: Vladimir Putin announces Russia’s suspension from New START: What is this nuclear arms treaty?
Blaming the West, NATO and the Ukrainian elite
The president repeated his criticism and held the West, NATO and rich Ukrainians responsible for the invasion.
“The responsibility is on the West and the Ukrainian elite and government, which does not serve the national interest, but [rather serves the interest] of third countries that use Ukraine as a military base to fight Russia,” he said.
“The more they send weapons to Ukraine, the more we will have the responsibility of the security situation at the Russian border. This is a natural response.”
He spoke about the expansion of the NATO military, which is an excuse he has used for what he calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“We have been open, frank and sincere in wanting an open dialogue with the West and we have said many times that the world needs indivisible security and we invited all countries of the world to talk about that,” Putin said in his annual address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow, according to CNN.
“But as a response, all we got was a hypocritical, incomprehensible reply, as well as quite substantive, concrete actions – the expansion of NATO – the so-called umbrella of defence of our country and Central Asia.”
Putin spoke at length about the war in Ukraine, justifying his decision to invade the neighbouring nation. AP
He said that the Western elite does not conceal their ambitions, which is to “strategically defeat Russia”.
According to him, the US in particular saw the war “as an anti-Russian project”. “The aim is to seize these historically Russian lands from us,” he alleged.
Russia’s responsibility to ‘liquidate the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv’
This is again something Putin has said before and he continues to use this claim to justify the invasion.
The Russian leader drew parallels between Ukraine’s “neo Nazi” government with Nazi Germany and went on to say that Russia was defending itself just as the Soviet Union defended its territory during World War II. He said it was Moscow’s responsibility to liquidate the “neo-Nazi regime” in Kyiv.
‘Not fighting Ukranians’
Russia is defending people’s lives, Putin claims, adding that his country was not fighting Ukrainians. He described them as hostages instead.
“We don’t fight with the Ukrainian people. They became hostages of the Kyiv regime that occupied Ukraine both economically and politically. Over years, they were doing everything to bring this degradation … They are using their people, it’s sad but true,” he alleged.
Participants applaud Putin after the address in Moscow. AP
‘Impossible to beat Russia’
According to the defiant president, it is “impossible to beat Russia” on the battlefield. He claimed that the Kremlin was using force to stop the war.
“… they [the West] intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation. This is exactly how we understand it all and we will react accordingly because in this case, we are talking about the existence of our country. But they also cannot fail to realise that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield. Therefore, they are conducting more and more aggressive information attacks against us,” he said.
‘Russia’s economy overcame all risks’
Putin said that Western sanctions slapped on the country to make the Russians “suffer” had failed, claiming that the share of roubles in international transactions has “doubled”.
He also said that Russia’s economy “overcame all the risks”. “We have decreased unemployment even against all the difficulties.” Comparing the unemployment rate with the pre-pandemic level, Putin said, “Now, it’s 3.7 per cent, that the record low number.”
He spoke about the country’s reduced GDP figures and claimed that instead of the Russian economy collapsing, it has been restructured, and Russia still does business with many areas of the world, according to a report by CNBC.
The Russian president said that it was impossible to beat his country on the battlefield. AP
Putin slams same-sex marriage and ‘corrupt Western values’
The Russian strongman has in the past portrayed himself as an upholder of traditional values. He spoke the same language on Tuesday, as he lashed out against the corrupt practices of the West.
He warned that Russians faced an existential threat from “corrupt Western values”. “The West declares that perversions including paedophilia, are part of the norm, destroys its values, calls on priests to bless same-sex marriages,” he said.
Clarifying that the state shouldn’t meddle in private life, he added that a family “is the union of a man and a woman” and blamed the West for “twisting historical facts”.
Under Putin’s rule, Russia has tightened anti-LGBTQ laws.
He also shared his views on God, saying the West was maligning the idea of a deity by trying to give God a gender-neutral identity. “The Church of England is considering a version of a ‘gender-neutral’ God. They don’t know what they’re doing,” he said.
With inputs from agencies
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