Putin’s speech comes amid a period of diplomatic confrontation with Western nations and a stand-off over the situation in Ukraine and Russian troop movements.
The address to the Federal Assembly is often used to announce major changes in Russian domestic and foreign policy.
This is the current live stream.
The full and complete transcript is now posted.
Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly
The President of Russia delivered the Address to the Federal Assembly. The ceremony took place at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall.
* *
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Members of the Federation Council, State Duma deputies,
Citizens of Russia,
Today’s Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly will be dedicated mostly to internal issues. These include, naturally, healthcare, social policy and the economy. Of course, I will say a few words about external affairs and literally a few words about security issues.
It stands to reason that I will begin with last year’s events, when our country and, actually, the entire world faced a new, previously unknown and extremely dangerous infection.
It that period, including during our meetings with experts and conversations with the leaders of many states, I often heard the following description of the situation: we are faced with total uncertainty. And this is how it really was.
I could see this from the information I received from the regions. The number of people who contracted the disease and needed to be rushed to hospital kept growing. Actually, all of you are very well aware of this. Many hospitals were filled to capacity and reported that they could run out of oxygen soon, including in intensive care units. Ventilators, protective masks and PPE were actually distributed by the piece. Shops were running out of basic products, such as cereals, butter and sugar, due to increased demand.
The epidemic was on the offensive. But although there was great concern, I personally had no doubt that we would pull through.
Citizens, society and the state acted responsibly and in unison. We rallied, managed to take preventive action, to create conditions that would reduce the risk of infection, and to provide medical personnel and citizens with personal protective equipment. We increased the number of hospital beds for coronavirus patients more than five times over, to 280,000 beds.
The brief outline of measures conceals the tremendous and intensive work of millions of people in all regions of the Russian Federation. I would like to cordially thank all of you for this. Everyone worked quickly, efficiently and conscientiously.
At that time and later on, we were analysing the situation practically non-stop. I recall vividly my visit to the hospital in Kommunarka. It was necessary to experience, to see at first hand the danger facing us and to assess the working conditions of medical specialists. They immediately found themselves in the thick of events and fought for every life, while risking their own.
Today, doctors, paramedics, medical nurses and members of ambulance teams are sitting here in this hall. Once again my heartfelt thanks to you and your colleagues from all the Russian regions.
Russian researchers made a real breakthrough, and Russia now has three reliable coronavirus vaccines. These and many other achievements of the past few years highlight the country’s growing science and technological potential.
I would like to thank everyone, every person who contributed to the fight against infection, including the workers at the plants manufacturing medications, medical equipment, personal protective equipment, and enterprises working 24 hours a day, housing and utility agencies, trade companies, the Russian business community that quickly converted entire sectors so that they could manufacture essential goods, civilian and military builders, agriculture workers who gathered a record-breaking harvest, one of the biggest in the country’s history, that is, over 130 million tonnes.
The personnel of law enforcement agencies and the special services continued to carry out their duty, and the Russian Armed Forces reliably ensured our country’s security.
I would like to underscore the selfless behaviour of people working for social services, orphanages, boarding schools, retirement homes and hospices who stayed and who continue to stay with their charges. You will certainly agree with me that, while analysing developments at these institutions, one feels proud of people who are carrying out their duty there in such a responsible manner. It could move you to tears. I would like to thank them once again.
I would also like to convey my sincere gratitude to school teachers and the lecturers at universities and other education institutions. You did everything possible to enable your students and pupils to gain knowledge and successfully pass their exams, with the involvement and support of their parents.
Russia’s cultural life continued unabated. Theatres, museums and concert halls remained open to audiences online thanks to modern technology. Everyone who works in this crucial sphere rose to the occasion.
Our people showed discipline and managed to observe, let’s face it, quite exhausting, but vital precautions. Thus, acting together, we have put up an effective barrier to the pandemic.
The people’s solidarity showed in concrete actions, in caring for the loved ones and in willingness to help people in need. Millions became volunteers and engaged in building person-to-person help routes. The nationwide We Are Together campaign brought together people from different walks of life and ages. As always during challenging times, our traditional religions stepped up to provide spiritual support to the society. I see the leaders of our religions here and I would like to bow deeply to you, thank you very much
Throughout history, our people have come out victorious and overcome trials thanks to unity. Today, family, friendship, mutual assistance, graciousness and unity have come to the fore as well.
Spiritual and moral values, which are already being forgotten in some countries, have, on the contrary, made us stronger. And we will always uphold and defend these values.
Colleagues,
The pandemic broke out at a time when the aftermath of the demographic shocks of the 1940s and 1990s converged. We realise that the current demographic situation is an emergency. Unfortunately, this is how things are. We must accept and admit it and do something about it based on our understanding of this situation.
Saving the people of Russia is our top national priority. This priority underlies the stipulations of the updated Constitution concerning the protection of the family, the important role parents play in bringing up their children, strengthening social guarantees, and further developing the economy, education and culture.
Our strategy is to return to sustainable population growth to make sure that the average life expectancy in Russia increases to 78 years in 2030.
Unfortunately, the statistics show us sad and disappointing numbers. We are even seeing a certain decline. It is clear what is happening because of the pandemic, but we will keep our strategic goals in this critical sphere unchanged.
I fully realise that this is no small feat, the more so as the coronavirus has not yet been completely defeated and remains a direct threat. We see the dramatic developments in many countries where the cases of infection continue to grow. We need to keep in check the defence barriers designed to slow down the spread of the virus along our external borders and within our country.
I would like to address all citizens of Russia once again. Friends, please stay alert. I am asking you to take care of yourselves and your loved ones and to comply with the doctors’ and sanitary services’ recommendations as closely as possible.
Vaccination is of crucial importance. I would like to ask the Government, the Healthcare Ministry and the heads of the regions to monitor this process on a daily basis. The opportunity to take the jab must be available everywhere, so that we achieve the so-called herd immunity by the autumn.
The attainment of this goal depends on everyone, on all our citizens. Please, I am asking all citizens of Russia once again to get vaccinated. This is the only way to stop this deadly epidemic. There is no alternative. The other choice is much worse: to contract the disease with unpredictable consequences.
I would like to say once again that the disease is still with us. But we must start thinking already now about healing the wounds it has inflicted and restoring people’s health.
During the peak periods, our hospitals and outpatient clinics had to reduce or even suspend scheduled visits. This increased the risk of the aggravation of chronic illnesses or the risk of missing the first signs of or correctly diagnosing new illnesses.
I would like to ask the Government, the Healthcare Ministry and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to expand the system of medical check-ups and periodic screenings, taking into account the current epidemiological situation, and to relaunch them in full measure on July 1, 2021 for people of all ages. They must involve the largest number of people possible. This is why we will increase the supply of mobile medical diagnostic systems to the regions in the near future.
One of the targets of the coronavirus is the cardiovascular system. These diseases have always been the leading cause of death. Therefore, special attention during periodic screenings must be given to people with cardiovascular diseases. I would like to instruct the Government to take additional measures to prevent the diseases that are the main causes of premature death. As I have already mentioned, these are cardiovascular diseases plus malignant tumours and respiratory system diseases.
Hepatitis C claims many young lives. Decisions must be made to reduce this threat to the health of the nation to a minimum within 10 years.
To ensure that as many people as possible can restore their health at sanatoriums and health resorts, I propose that the 20 percent rebate programme for domestic travel is extended at least until the end of the year.
Children’s health is our special priority. Indeed, the foundation for good health for many years to come is laid during childhood. Children’s rest and recreation activities must be made as affordable as possible. In this regard, this year, I propose reimbursing half of what parents spend on their children’s summer camps.
In addition, we need to expand opportunities for student tourism. Already this year, we must launch several pilot projects, including accommodation on university campuses and in dormitories in other regions for students who travel around the country during the summer.
And, of course, we must reward the young people who have done well in academic competitions and in volunteer and creative initiatives as well as the projects operated by the Russia – Land of Opportunity platform. For them, the partial reimbursement programme for tourist vouchers will remain valid during the holidays, aka the high season. This is a ground-breaking decision.
I wish to thank all the parliamentary groups which supported the decision on the taxation of high incomes, or rather, a portion of high incomes. These proceeds will go to the dedicated Circle of Kindness fund and have already been released to help children affected by rare and serious diseases, to purchase expensive medicines and medical equipment, and to cover the costs of surgeries.
On April 28, we will celebrate Ambulance Worker Day which was established as a show of respect to those who arrive first to save lives. These specialists must be provided with all necessary supplies. Within the next three years, we will make another 5,000 new ambulances available to rural communities, urban-type localities and small towns, which will replace the ambulance fleet almost in full.
I want to emphasise that public healthcare authorities in many leading countries – we are well aware of it and, in fact, they themselves are saying so – were unable to deal with the challenges of the pandemic as effectively as we did in Russia. At the same time, global health care is on the cusp of a genuine revolution. This must be recognised and clearly seen. We cannot miss it.
The pandemic has exponentially sped up the introduction of telemedicine, artificial intelligence and new approaches in diagnostics, surgery, rehabilitation and the production of medicines everywhere. We must put these technologies at the service of the people of our country.
We must build our healthcare system around this ground-breaking technology, and keep an eye on pressing everyday problems in the process. As we are all aware, they abound, mostly in primary care. There must be no such thing as waiting lines, no hassle making a diagnostics appointment or a specialist doctor appointment, or obtaining prescriptions and sick leaves, for that matter. This has often come up in our discussions lately. The funds have been set side and allocated. It is time to move quickly and efficiently to make it happen.
We have a backlog to deal with in healthcare and other social sectors, including many technical, financial and managerial challenges. However, what people need is qualified and timely medical help. I propose reviewing public healthcare problems from this perspective at an expanded meeting of the State Council some time soon. We will prepare for it and hold it shortly.
I repeat: we have gained some fundamentally new experience in fulfilling our social commitments. During the pandemic, we made direct payments to families bringing up almost 28 million children, and they received their benefits without any unnecessary paperwork or other kinds of red tape – they got the money they needed and were entitled to automatically. I know Government members have been working on this, focusing deliberately, not without some failures, but they have made every effort to accomplish this task, and coped with it. This is great, this is a good example. This approach should become the norm at all levels of government.
This is the essence of the National Social Initiative, which was discussed at a recent joint meeting of the State Council Presidium and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.
I am calling on the regional governors: it is your direct responsibility to organise the work of local clinics, daycare nurseries and schools, and employment centres, based on the daily needs of families, of each and every person. In many regions, I have seen with my own eyes that such work has already been launched in certain areas. This needs to be done everywhere and in all social sectors.
As soon as in 2022, we must introduce the ‘social treasury’ principles. This means that all federal benefits, pensions and other social payments and services will be provided and paid in a one-stop mode, without having to visit dozens of different agencies, but simply upon marriage, the birth of a child, retirement or other life milestones. Within three years, the vast majority of public and municipal services should be provided to Russian citizens remotely, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that is, on an ongoing basis.
Separately, we will have to discuss child-support payments, which are a sensitive topic for many families. Unfortunately, this is a problem in our country. This procedure should not be humiliating for anyone. Most issues here need to be resolved remotely and, most importantly, in the interests of the affected party. A mother with a child should not have to camp on the doorstep of various authorities to collect official documents, carrying her baby in her arms, and this is what usually happens. A system of interagency communication needs to be built, with banks included, in such a way as to ensure the unconditional execution of court decisions on the recovery of child-support payments. The state is obliged to protect the rights of the child; this is what we are talking about. I will return to this topic again later.
Colleagues,
We understand the heavy toll that the pandemic has taken on people’s welfare. Statistics show the aggravating effects of this outbreak on social inequality and poverty. It has been a challenge for all countries around the world – remember, all countries, not only Russia, are experiencing the same consequences. Certainly, we should be primarily concerned about the situation in our own country.
We are now facing price hikes that are undercutting people’s incomes. Some urgent decisions have been made, of course, but we cannot solely rely on targeted and essentially directive measures. We remember potential outcomes. Back in the late 1980s and the 1990s in the Soviet Union, they resulted in empty store shelves. But today, even when the pandemic was at its worst, we did not allow the same thing to happen.
The Government’s goal is to create conditions that will be long-term and which, I want to stress this part, colleagues, can, thanks to market mechanisms (which we have), guarantee the predictability of prices and quality replenishment of the domestic market. Nobody is saying that we will be setting prices from the top. There’s no need to muddy the waters and scare people. There are market regulatory mechanisms and they must be employed – promptly and to the extent required and appropriate to a specific situation in the economy and social sphere. We need to stimulate investment activity by reducing business risks. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Surely, the main goal right now is to ensure that people’s real incomes grow – that is, to restore them and secure their further growth. As I said, we need tangible changes in our fight against poverty.
Before anything else, the Government must provide direct support to families with children who are experiencing hardships. This has been our consistent policy and we will continue to pursue it.
We already have a system of benefits paid to parents of one or two children from the time the children are born and until they reach the age of three. Families with incomes below two subsistence minimums per family member are entitled to such benefits. The average monthly amount paid across the country is 11,300 rubles per child. Seventy-eight Russian regions pay benefits for the third child, also 11,300 rubles on average.
Please note that we are making consistent progress in this area, step by step. Last year, we introduced benefits for children aged three to seven. They range from 5,650 to 11,300 rubles per month depending on the region.
I instruct the Government to develop, by July 1, a comprehensive system of support for families with children. Our goal is to minimise the risk of poverty for such families.
But a number of new decisions need to be taken immediately, already today. It is always difficult for a single parent to raise a child. There are plenty of reasons for that. And this is not about the reasons but about supporting children. It is particularly difficult when a single-parent family is having financial problems, especially when children start going to school and family expenses objectively rise.
In particular, we must support single-parent families, where a mother or a father is bringing up a child alone, and only one of the parents is registered on the birth certificate – sorry to be speaking of such mundane things, but this is a fact of life – or the parents have divorced and one of them has the right to child-support payments. Therefore, as of July 1 this year, all children in such families aged between 8 and 16, inclusively, will receive a benefit. The national average of such benefit will be 5,650 rubles.
Of course, we must also help women who are expecting a baby and who have financial problems. It is extremely important for a mother-to-be to get support from the state and society, so that they can keep their pregnancy and know that they will receive help in raising and bringing up their child.
I propose approving a monthly subsidy for women who register at a maternity centre during early pregnancy and who have financial problems. The average subsidy for them will be 6,350 rubles a month.
Next, the sick pay for taking care of a child who falls ill depends on the employment record, which is correct, on the whole, and fair. However, young women receive much smaller sick leave payments. We have discussed this issue at the State Council, and it has been raised by the United Russia. We need to adopt legal decisions on this matter without delay, so that payments for taking care of a sick child aged up to 7 years inclusively are approved at 100 percent of the parent’s salary as soon as this year.
You understand what this means. The majority of those in this room know that the longer the employment record the larger the sick pay. Women who have a long work record usually receive full sick pay, but they usually do not have children at their age. Those who have children do not receive full pay. We must definitely help those who are expecting a baby.
I would also like to remind you that we have expanded and extended the maternity capital programme up until 2026. This benefit will now be paid already for the first child. We could not afford this before. The maternity capital has been adjusted to inflation and is almost 640,000 rubles
Free hot meals for all primary school children were approved as of January 1, 2020, and this measure has become a great help for families.
I would like to point out that all our decisions were designed to support our people. I know that many and very many people have financial problems now. The labour market and real disposable income of the people will be certainly restored, and we will move on. This has not happened yet. Therefore, I suggest approving one more one-off payment for the families that have school children, namely, 10,000 rubles per schoolchild. Moreover, this payment will also be made for the children who will only start school this year. We will transfer the money in mid-August, so that parents can get their children ready for school.
The updated Constitution of Russia includes clauses on demographic development, and protection of the family and childhood. They should be implemented in practice at all levels of government. I propose including a section aimed at supporting young people in each national project.
Friends,
During the pandemic, many young doctors and nurses, recent graduates as well as residents and students of medical universities worked courageously in the so-called red zones, joining their senior colleagues. In that extraordinary situation, teachers, schoolchildren, college and university students continued to teach and study, to have exams. Young family members supported their parents and older relatives. The youth of Russia proved to be extremely worthy during that period of trials. We can be proud of them.
We will do everything to open up as many life opportunities as possible for the younger generation. Their journey certainly begins at school, and I am sure that school will always be a second home for children; a new home, comfortable and modern.
Under the existing federal programme and with additional resources provided by the VEB Development Bank, we will build at least 1,300 new schools for more than a million children by the end of 2024. We will also purchase at least 16,000 school buses over the next four years. All school buses must be modern and safe.
Classroom teachers have been receiving a monthly addition to their salaries since last year. A very necessary and, I am sure, fair decision. I remember how we held discussions on this matter last year.
However, I have received requests, letters from teachers in secondary vocational institutions who say they have been forgotten. This is actually true. Justice must be restored. We have to fix this and establish the same additional payment of 5,000 rubles for supervisors of educational groups at technical schools and colleges.
I propose allocating an additional 10 billion rubles in the next two years for major repairs and technical equipment of our pedagogical universities. I ask the Government to pay close attention to up-to-date training of future teachers. The future of Russia largely depends on them.
Furthermore, school teaching teams should be expanded with teaching assistants, mentors and counsellors, whose job will be to organise exciting projects for children at schools.
It is very important that our young people should look to and be inspired by the achievements and victories of our outstanding ancestors and contemporaries, by their love for our Motherland and aspiration to make a personal contribution to its development. Children should have the opportunity to explore the national history and the multinational culture, our achievements in science and technology, literature and art in advanced formats. You know, I still open certain school textbooks occasionally and am surprised at what I see there – as if what is written there has nothing to do with us at all. Who writes such textbooks? Who approves them? It is unbelievable. They mention everything, the ‘second front’ and a lot of other facts, but not the Battle of Stalingrad – how is that possible? Amazing! I do not even want to comment.
I propose allocating an additional 24 billion rubles within the next three years to renovate cultural centres, libraries and museums in rural areas and small historical towns. This is another crucial area.
It is important to resume the activities of the Knowledge Society – we all remember well what it is – based on a modern digital platform. It seems to have been operational lately, but no one seems to notice it is there, either. Also, in order to support projects in culture, art and creative activities, we will set up a Presidential fund for cultural initiatives. Already this year, we will use its competitive grants to finance over 1,500 creative teams.
Colleagues,
A month from now, 11th grade students will be taking exams. Based on the results, most of them, about 60 percent, will enrol in universities and have their tuition covered from the budget. It can be safely stated that practically no country in the world apart from Russia has this kind of broad and free access to higher education.
In the next two years, we will make an additional 45,000 state-funded places available at our universities. At least 70 percent of them will go to the regions which need university graduates.
Starting this year, at least 100 universities in the constituent entities of our Federation will receive grants in the amount of 100 million rubles or more for opening student technoparks and business incubators, upgrading academic and laboratory facilities, and running training programmes. All state universities will be eligible for this support, including the ones that train future teachers, medical doctors, transport and culture workers. I am confident that the young generation of Russians, Russian scientists, will make their names known in the meaningful research projects that are yet to come.
This year was declared Science and Technology Year in our country. We realise that science is absolutely key in the modern world. Until 2024, Russia will allocate 1.63 trillion rubles from the federal budget alone for civil, including fundamental, research. But that is not all.
We are about to launch ground-breaking programmes in areas that are critical to our country. They will be given the status of nationwide projects. I would like to discuss some of them separately just to give you a sense.
First, we must have a solid and reliable shield to give us sanitary and biological safety. We now understand what it is about. It is imperative to ensure Russia’s independence in the production of the entire range of vaccines and pharmaceutical substances, including medications against infections that are resistant to the current generation of antibiotics. Importantly, this must be achieved with the maximum engagement of Russian-made equipment and domestic components.
In the event of an infection as dangerous as the coronavirus, or, God forbid, even more dangerous, Russia must be prepared to develop its own test systems within four days, precisely four days, and to create an efficacious domestic vaccine and start its mass production as soon as possible. These are the goals that we are setting for ourselves. The timeframe for achieving these goals is 2030. But the sooner we get there, the better.
Second, we need new comprehensive approaches to the development of our energy sector, including new solutions for nuclear generation in the promising areas of hydrogen energy and energy storage.
Third, we must find answers to the climate change challenges, adjust our agriculture, industry, the housing and utilities sector and the entire infrastructure to them, create a carbon utilisation sector, bring down emissions and introduce strict control and monitoring measures.
Over the next 30 years, the cumulative emissions in Russia must be smaller than in the EU. It is an ambitious goal, considering the size of our country and the specific features of its geography, climate and economic structure. However, I have no doubt whatsoever that it is a perfectly realistic goal in light of our research and technological potential.
Our new energy and pharmaceutical sectors and the solution of climate problems must provide a powerful boost to a comprehensive modernisation of all economic sectors and the social sphere. It is a direct path to the creation of modern and well-paid jobs.
The efforts taken by each level of government, business, development institutions and the Russian Academy of Sciences must have in view the main, central task: to improve the quality of life for our people. I would like to point out that our position on environmental protection is a matter of principle in this respect, and it will definitely remain unchanged.
The dangers of the alternative position have been recently exemplified by the events in Norilsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye and several other places. We will certainly help the people who live there, but we must also preclude a repetition of such environmental disasters.
I would like to ask those responsible to accelerate the adoption of a law on the financial responsibility of enterprise owners for clearing up the accumulated pollution and for the reclamation of industrial sites. This is a very simple approach. Here it is: if you have benefited from polluting the environment, clean up after yourself. We must act harshly. Rosprirodnadoz [the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources] and other regulatory authorities must do their jobs.
I would like to add that the “polluter pays” principle must also be employed in full in the waste disposal sector to ensure transition to the so-called closed-loop economy. With this aim in view, we must launch a mechanism of extended producers and importers’ responsibility for the management of products and packaging wastes as soon as this year.
I also propose marking environmental payments to the federal budget. I know that experts and financial specialists do not like such special marks, but I see this as a vital sphere of our activity. We can make an exception in this case, and invest these funds in clearing up accumulated pollution and improving the environment.
Also, as I said, the amount of hazardous emissions in Russia’s 12 largest industrial centres must be reduced by 20 percent by 2024. We have already discussed this. Obviously, this goal must be accomplished through a comprehensive modernisation of the industrial sector, the housing and utilities sector, transport and energy.
Moreover, I propose expanding the emission quota system to all Russian cities with major air quality problems and introduce strict liability for non-compliance with environmental regulations. Of course, this requires transparent monitoring.
We will definitely support the efforts of businesses to upgrade their facilities up to current environmental standards. For example, upgrading will begin this year at aluminium plants in Bratsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Novokuznetsk based on the state guarantee mechanism. I will later name other cities and towns in other contexts but it does not mean that our work is limited to those areas. They only serve as examples.
Colleagues,
Last year, we allocated unprecedented resources for supporting the economy. Among other things, we managed to preserve over 5 million jobs through subsidised loans for wage payments. I want to stress that this programme succeeded but it succeeded precisely because businesses acted responsibly and did everything they could to keep their employees. We could see that.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to prevent layoffs completely. I understand how hard it is for those who lost their jobs. The Government was instructed to ensure that the labour market recovers by the end of the year. Still, this problem must be solved sooner so that people can have a stable income again. The Government will be encouraging entrepreneurial initiatives and stimulate private investments that create new jobs.
As you know, last year, social insurance contributions for small and medium-sized businesses were reduced by half, from 30 to 15 percent. This decision will remain in force permanently and is not subject to review.
I instruct the Government to present, within the next month, additional proposals on supporting small and medium-sized businesses, such as tax incentives, accessible loans and expanding product distribution and sales, including to major state-run companies.
As for other decisions in the economic sphere, I would like to mention the following.
First, we have already scrapped many archaic norms and requirements in construction and other fields and discontinued many unnecessary control inspections, but we also need to increase the momentum to achieve substantive, clear and tangible results in improving the business climate. For example, building a turnkey factory in Russia should be faster, more economically efficient and easier than in other regions of the world, including countries with developed economies.
Furthermore, we need to simplify the working conditions for non-commodity exporters. We have certainly been pursuing this policy line for a few years now, but we still need to remove all excessive restrictions in forex control for these exporters. This is one of the problems. The new procedure should start functioning in July. We have discussed this matter more than once. All amendments to the legislation must be adopted as quickly as possible during the spring session.
Secondly, the talent of an entrepreneur is primarily the talent of a creator, an aspiration to change life for the better, to create new jobs. The state will definitely support this attitude.
In the modern world where the market situation sometimes changes almost every day, businesses have to deal with high risks, especially when investing in long-term projects. To address this, we will be adjusting the entire private investment support system. We will evaluate how effective the projects are by the new products, services, and technologies they provide people with and how they improve the potential of Russia and each individual region.
The Special Investment Contract mechanism has already been improved; we have implemented a new instrument – Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements. We have consolidated development institutions on the basis of VEB. Their job is to reduce the risks for investing private capital, to help in the creation of new markets and investment mechanisms, the same as with the Project Finance Factory mechanism already in place. It is currently supporting more than 40 commercial projects with a total investment of 3 trillion rubles.
I am waiting for proposals from the Government on the implementation of the ideas proposed in March at a meeting with Russian businesses. Colleagues, you are well aware of this.
Third, we are making all major decisions concerning the economy through a dialogue with the business community. This is the practice established over many years. Of course, we have the right to expect that the auxiliary financial instruments and support mechanisms will bring the most desired result, which is converting profit into investment and development.
There is an important thing I want to say although it is nothing new to businesses. They know it already. The corporate sector is expected to make a record profit this year, despite all the problems that we are dealing with. Despite these problems, this is the real picture. We will take note of how this profit will be used and, based on the annual results, we may decide to calibrate the tax legislation. I want to see specific proposals from the Government. Off the record, I should note: some withdraw dividends while others invest in the development of their companies and entire industries. We will be encouraging those who invest.
Last year, we substantially increased budget expenditure while managing to maintain the stability of state finances. The Government and the Central Bank must continue to pursue a responsible financial policy. Ensuring macroeconomic stability and containing inflation within set parameters is an extremely important task. I assume that it will definitely be accomplished.
At the same time, thanks to our budget capacity and our reserves, we can allocate more funds to support investment in infrastructure and provide regions with new development instruments. Launching these instruments will require the law to be amended. I expect that all parliamentary parties – A Just Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Communist Party and United Russia – will uphold these amendments.
In this regard, I want to thank all constructive public forces in the country for their responsible and patriotic attitude during this difficult epidemic. These are not just meaningless words because it was this attitude and its practical significance that helped all of us preserve the balance and stability of Russia’s government and political system. This is always important but it is especially relevant because we are preparing for the elections to the State Duma and other government bodies, considering the extensive work we will have to carry out. I hope that this competitive mindset that unites us in the face of common goals will persist.
Colleagues,
The country is developing and moving forward, but this is only taking place when the regions of the Russian Federation are developing. A striving of the heads of constituent entities to make their regions successful and self-sufficient must be and will be encouraged in every way.
We will support those who assume responsibility and launch constructive projects. I am confident that every Russian region has huge potential. To help make positive and productive use of this potential, what must we reduce first of all? The governors know what I am referring to: we must reduce the debt burden. These topics must be thoroughly discussed once again.
I ask the Government to submit by June 1 the proposals on ensuring long-term stability of regional and municipal finance and on increasing the regions’ self-sufficiency. We will discuss them in summer at a State Council meeting, and we will do so with due regard for the priority decisions about which I will tell you now.
First of all, we must help regions with large commercial debts. Here is what I suggest: the amount of a region’s commercial debt that exceeds 25 percent of the given region’s own revenues will be replaced with budgetary loans that will mature in 2029.
In addition, I propose restructuring the budgetary loans, yes, budgetary loans that were issued to the regions last year for taking measures to combat the pandemic. I believe that this would be fair. I would like to remind everyone that these loans will mature in two months, on July 1. I suggest extending them to 2029 as well.
I would like to emphasise that the restructuring of accumulated debts should be used as a mechanism of increasing the self-sufficiency of regional economies, especially considering that we will be offering a fundamentally new development tool to our constituent entities. I am referring to the so-called budgetary infrastructure loans with an interest rate of not more than 3 percent per annum and with maturity in 15 years. We intend to allocate a total of at least 0.5 trillion rubles, that is, 500 billion rubles of such infrastructure loans by the end of 2023.
Regional debt restructuring must be based on the concept of justice, which has always been the case, actually. Some constituent entities have large accumulated commercial debts, while other entities did not take out many loans. The latter may feel neglected in this case. This will not do, and we will not permit this. We will support those who have always pursued and continue to pursue a balanced financial policy. The principle of the distribution of infrastructure loans will be as follows: the fewer debts a region had, the more it will be able to receive in infrastructure loans.
We are one country. All levels of government and business must work to one end. Debt restructuring and an innovative investment resource in the form of infrastructure loans will allow us to expand the planning horizon and to launch new solutions that are tied in with the implementation of national projects, sector-specific strategies and a comprehensive plan for upgrading the backbone infrastructure.
Federal infrastructure loans are a powerful resource, but whether they will help us get ahead or attract private investment hugely depends on what regional management teams do and on their ability to conduct an open and candid dialogue with businesses, investors, and, of course, primarily, individuals.
The infrastructure projects in the regions must be implemented, primarily, in the interests of the people, and serve as investment in the creation of new jobs and in promoting the well-being of millions of Russian households and securing the future of our children. The priorities will be building motorways and bypasses in urban areas, upgrading the housing and utilities sector infrastructure and the public transport system, as well as conducting integrated development of territories and building tourist facilities.
Please note that the infrastructure and budget loans will be fully under the control of the Federal Treasury and will be provided exclusively for specific projects that have been thoroughly analysed by experts at the federal level. While we are at it, I would like to say something to regional leaders and the Government: listen, let’s work in a rhythmic and business-like manner. I do not want to use harsh or rude language at this rostrum, but things must be done on time and projects must be prepared, not just pictures shown to the Government. In turn, the Government must quickly process the projects and help the regions deal with things they have problems dealing with. You must help your colleagues, you understand that? Not trash what they have brought to you and say they did a bad job. Some of them are unable to do what you ask of them. Help them, and then things will be on the path forwards.
The scale of the projects may vary, but most importantly, as I said, they must benefit our people and open up new opportunities. For example, in conjunction with our major companies and using the proposed mechanism, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area will begin the construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway. This is the railway that will spur the development of the richest resources of the Arctic. This project has been in the works for a long time now, and it’s time to launch it, since we can do so now. For example, as a result, Nizhny Novgorod will be able to continue building the metro and to start renovating the city centre. Chelyabinsk, another city with a million-plus residents, will also have the opportunity to upgrade its transport system through a long-standing metro construction project. I am aware of other similar projects in Krasnoyarsk and other regions.
And, of course, the construction of new facilities must be at a qualitatively higher level. I want the Government to draft a clear step-by-step plan for the end-to-end and widespread use of digital design, and the production and introduction of cutting-edge energy-efficient materials. This is also important if we want to tackle the climate and environmental challenges.
Large-scale infrastructure development sets fundamentally new tasks before the construction industry. In the difficult past year, it worked smoothly and built over 80 million square metres of housing. This is a good result. The more we build, the more affordable housing will there be for Russian families.
Therefore, we have an ambitious goal. We have already discussed it as well and this ambitious goal has not disappeared– we plan to build 120 million square metres of housing every year. That said, we must certainly envisage a special mechanism for supporting private housing construction.
As for large-scale construction, the DOM.RF development institute will attract financial resources through the placement of bonds. This is a tried and tested mechanism that generally works well. These resources must go to developers as targeted loans.
I would like to emphasise that federal budget subsidies will allow DOM.RF to issue loans to developers at a minimal annual rate of about 3–4 percent. The construction of residential neighbourhoods in Tula, Tyumen, the Sakhalin Region and Kuzbass will be pilot projects for developing this model.
Improvement of cities and towns and housing construction growth play a major role in the development of the regions. We must take care of the urgent, daily problems of local residents. Quite a few Russian families live in areas connected to gas networks but their homes still have no access to gas for some reason. It seems the pipe is there but there is no gas at home.
I would like to ask the Government to work out, in cooperation with the regions, a clear-cut plan for bringing gas to such households. In this context, I support United Russia’s initiative, notably, that people do not have to pay for laying gas pipes directly to the border of their land plots in a residential area.
As I have already said, the Government must analyse all details in cooperation with Gazprom and other companies and agencies that work in this area to prevent any setbacks. Otherwise, I will say something from this rostrum and people will be waiting for it but because you don’t put some squiggles or commas in the right place everything will get bogged down again. This is unacceptable, and I will check on it myself, so please pay attention. Mosoblgaz and other companies must understand what they must do, in what timeframe and how much money they have at their disposal.
The goal is certainly more extensive. We must offer every region our solutions on public access to reliable and clean energy sources. This may be electricity, including from renewable sources, or environmentally friendly use of coal, which is also an option in the modern world, pipeline or liquefied gas. I instruct the regional heads to prepare, in coordination with the Government, detailed plans of action and start implementing them next year.
For example, in Kamchatka we must envisage the creation of local gas-receiving infrastructure to ensure reliable long-term gas supplies to the residents and companies of the Kamchatka Territory.
Colleagues,
We will not only give fundamentally new development tools to the regions, but will also directly invest federal resources into the settlement of the worst systemic problems, which will have a compound effect on boosting the regions’ growth and improving the quality of people’s lives.
We will begin with allocations from the National Welfare Fund for building mainline motorways. First of all, we should finance the ongoing construction of the Moscow-Kazan high-speed road and, more than that, extend it all the way to Yekaterinburg, completing this project within three years.
This way, together with the existing Moscow-St Petersburg high-speed road and the Central Ring Road, this will ensure safe high-speed motorway transit across the entire European part of Russia, from the Baltic Sea to the Urals, by 2024.
However, it is not enough to simply connect the end-of-line destinations. What good will this do, if it does not change anything about life in villages or small towns but only gives the people there an opportunity to watch high-speed trains and vehicles rush past? The backbone infrastructure must definitely lead to the development of all the territories where it has been built, giving rise to the development of a modern regional network.
The constituent entities will now be able to use infrastructure loans to speed up the implementation of these construction projects. But in their development plans, our colleagues should remember and take into account that the federal and regional mainlines must function as a unified system in the interests of our citizens, businesses and regions. In this way, the infrastructure loans and the resources of the National Welfare Fund will be working for the benefit of all Russian regions.
The same goes for our new national project in the tourist sphere. A programme of easy loans will be launched soon to finance the construction and renovation of hotels and other tourist infrastructure. The interest rate on these loans will be 3–5 percent as well, and the loans will mature in 15 years.
There are many other pilot projects. I will only mention some of them: the development of Sheregesh, the leading mountain ski resort in Kuzbass; the creation of a yachting resort in the Bay of Balaklava in Sevastopol; and the development of the tourist industry on the Altai and in the Kaliningrad Region.
The infrastructure loans project will give a new impetus to entire tourist clusters. In particular, several regions in Central Russia will be able to modernise and expand the Golden Ring route at a fundamentally new level, realising the tourist potential of small towns such as Tarusa, Palekh, Murom, Gorokhovets, Tutayev and Borovsk. Development projects will be launched in the Volga Region cities, the Crimean resorts, the Black Sea and Pacific coast areas, as well as in our resort towns such as Staraya Russa in the Novgorod Region and Kavkazskiye Mineralnye Vody in the Caucasus, including its gem, Kislovodsk.
Russia is a hospitable country that is open to its good friends. You surely remember what happened during the 2018 football championships. As soon as the epidemiological situation allows, we will lift the remaining restrictions and millions of tourists from all over the world will come to Russia again. We have a practical task at hand: to ensure that e-visas for travel to Russia are available remotely and without undue formalities within a matter of four days in the majority of countries.
Colleagues,
The meaning and purpose of Russia’s policy in the international arena – I will just say a few words about this to conclude my address – is to ensure peace and security for the well-being of our citizens, for the stable development of our country. Russia certainly has its own interests we defend and will continue to defend within the framework of international law, as all other states do. And if someone refuses to understand this obvious thing or does not want to conduct a dialogue and chooses a selfish and arrogant tone with us, Russia will always find a way to defend its stance.
At the same time, unfortunately, everyone in the world seems to be used to the practice of politically motivated, illegal economic sanctions and to certain actors’ brutal attempts to impose their will on others by force. But today, this practice is degenerating into something even more dangerous – I am referring to the recently exposed direct interference in Belarus in an attempt to orchestrate a coup d’état and assassinate the President of that country. At the same time, it is typical that even such flagrant actions have not been condemned by the so-called collective West. Nobody seemed to notice. Everyone pretends nothing is happening.
But listen, you can think whatever you like of, say, Ukrainian President [Viktor] Yanukovych or [Nicolas] Maduro in Venezuela. I repeat, you can like or dislike them, including Yanukovych who almost got killed, too, and removed from power via an armed coup. You can have your own opinion of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko’s policy. But the practice of staging coups d’état and planning political assassinations, including those of high-ranking officials – well, this goes too far. This is beyond any limits.
Suffice it to mention the admission made by the detained participants in the conspiracy about a planned siege of Minsk, including plans to block the city infrastructure and communications, and a complete shutdown of the entire power system in the capital of Belarus! This actually means they were preparing a massive cyberattack. What else could it be? You know, you cannot just do it all with one switch.
Clearly, there is a reason why our Western colleagues have been stubbornly rejecting Russia’s numerous proposals to establish an international dialogue on information and cyber security. We have come up with these proposals many times. They avoid even discussing this matter.
What if there had been a real attempt at a coup d’état in Belarus? After all, this was the ultimate goal. How many people would have been hurt? What would have become of Belarus? Nobody is thinking about this.
Just as no one was thinking about the future of Ukraine during the coup in that country.
All the while, unfriendly moves towards Russia have also continued unabated. Some countries have taken up an unseemly routine where they pick on Russia for any reason, most often, for no reason at all. It is some kind of new sport of who shouts the loudest.
In this regard, we behave in an extremely restrained manner, I would even say, modestly, and I am saying this without irony. Often, we prefer not to respond at all, not just to unfriendly moves, but even to outright rudeness. We want to maintain good relations with everyone who participates in the international dialogue. But we see what is happening in real life. As I said, every now and then they are picking on Russia, for no reason. And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis are running around them like Tabaqui ran around Shere Khan – everything is like in Kipling’s book – howling along in order to make their sovereign happy. Kipling was a great writer.
We really want to maintain good relations with all those engaged in international communication, including, by the way, those with whom we have not been getting along lately, to put it mildly. We really do not want to burn bridges. But if someone mistakes our good intentions for indifference or weakness and intends to burn or even blow up these bridges, they must know that Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, swift and tough.
Those behind provocations that threaten the core interests of our security will regret what they have done in a way they have not regretted anything for a long time.
At the same time, I just have to make it clear, we have enough patience, responsibility, professionalism, self-confidence and certainty in our cause, as well as common sense, when making a decision of any kind. But I hope that no one will think about crossing the “red line” with regard to Russia. We ourselves will determine in each specific case where it will be drawn.
I will now say, just as I always do during the annual addresses to the Federal Assembly, that the improvement and qualitative strengthening of Russia’s Armed Forces continues on a regular basis. In particular, special attention will be given to the development of military education both at military school and academies and at military training centres at civilian universities.
By 2024, the share of modern weapons and military equipment in the armed forces will reach nearly 76 percent, which is a very good indicator. This share in the nuclear triad will be over 88 percent before this year is out.
Standing on combat duty are the latest Avangard hypersonic intercontinental missile systems and the Peresvet combat laser systems, and the first regiment armed with Sarmat super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles is scheduled to go on combat duty in late 2022.
The number of combat air systems with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and warships armed with precision hypersonic weapons such as Kinzhal that I mentioned, and with the Kalibr missiles, is increasing. The Tsirkon hypersonic missiles will be put on combat duty soon. Work is underway on other modern combat systems, including Poseidon and Burevestnik, in accordance with the development plans of the Armed Forces.
As the leader in the creation of new-generation combat systems and in the development of modern nuclear forces, Russia is urging its partners once again to discuss the issues related to strategic armaments and to ensuring global stability. The subject matter and the goal of these talks could be the creation of an environment for a conflict-free coexistence based on the security equation, which would include not only the traditional strategic armaments, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, heavy bombers and submarines, but – I would like to emphasise this – all offensive and defensive systems capable of attaining strategic goals regardless of the armament.
The five nuclear countries bear special responsibility. I hope that the initiative on a personal meeting of the heads of state of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, which we proposed last year, will materialise and will be held as soon as the epidemiological situation allows.
Russia is always open to broad international cooperation. We have consistently advocated the preservation and strengthening of the key role of the United Nations in international affairs, and we try to provide assistance to the settlement of regional conflicts and have already done a great deal to stabilise the situation in Syria and to launch a political dialogue in Libya. As you know, Russia played the main role in stopping the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is on the basis of mutual respect that we are building relations with the absolute majority of the world’s countries: in Asia, Latin America, Africa and many European countries. We are consistently expanding as a priority contacts with our closest partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BRICS, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and our allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.
Our common projects in the Eurasian Economic Union are aimed at ensuring economic growth and the wellbeing of our people. There are new, interesting projects here, such as the development of transport-and-logistics corridors. I am sure they will become a reliable infrastructure backbone for large-scale Eurasian partnership. The Russian ideas of this broad, open association are already being put into practice, in part, via alignment with other integration processes.
All these projects are not just geopolitical ideas but strictly practical instruments for resolving national development tasks.
Colleagues,
I began today’s Address with urgent healthcare issues, and concluding it, I would like to say the following. Nobody in the world knew what misfortune we would have to face. However, we, citizens of Russia, have already done much and will do all we can to counter the threat of the epidemic. Our country has reliable resources for this. We created them in healthcare, science, education and industry in previous years.
However, we must definitely move forward. We have mapped out national development tasks. Naturally, the challenge of the epidemic has made objective adjustments to our work. Today’s Address contains instructions on demography and family support, as well as on efforts to fight poverty, increase incomes, create jobs, improve the business environment and raise state management to a new level.
I would like to ask the Government to focus on these tasks in preparing new initiatives on Russia’s socioeconomic development and instruct it to present them by July 1 of this year.
What do I have in mind? Doing everyday work, we must certainly not forget about our strategic development goals and our national development goals, and we must improve the mechanisms for reaching them.
We will discuss the Government’s proposals with the participation of the relevant State Council commissions, our business associations, experts and the Civic Chamber. Following such a broad discussion, we will make final decisions on further financial and organisational actions at the meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.
Now I would like to address all citizens of Russia once again to say that we will do everything in our power to achieve the goals set. I am sure we will move forward together and accomplish all the tasks that we have set for ourselves.
Thank you very much for your attention.
The National Anthem of the Russian Federation is played.
Thank you Saker!
Definitely not what I was expecting, 45 minutes of pandemic response and then a veiled mentioning of western aggression. Nothing on the escalation in Ukraine?? I’m starting to agree with the hardliners, Putin is way too reserved and soft spoken.
This speech is an annual event. I don’t know why Twitter and the alt-media hyped it up to the extent that they did.
He returned Crimea to Mother Russia without saying a word. In fact, without violating the lease agreement for military, inserting polite green men, and not firing a shot.
You would have preferred 10 days of warfare and lots of bellicosity from the Kremlin?
I think Putin is doing a job that defies criticism.
He has a strategy that keeps weakening the Hegemon, NATO, the EU and frustrates the Russophobes into careless attempts of destabilization and self-destruction.
Which nation is going backwards? The USA or Russian Federation?
Russia has the largest economy on its side (China) and the US owns the beggar nations of Eastern Europe. Who is ahead in that game?
Putin tells the world that Russia would rather go to heaven and will send the West to hell if they start a war that touches Mother. And you say he’s too reserved. Too soft spoken.
He’s brilliant. Judo master knocks the bully off balance with a finger jab and you want blood.
Sign up, get a gun, go to any war zone and make your argument. Prove your point.
Putin is building a nation, its sphere of influence, the Arctic and Eurasia.
He is winning and you want him to act the fool.
The West is shitting its pants at what Putin and Shoigu have built in terms of defense and offense military weapons systems.
Russia, if you don’t know, and apparently you don’t, is the most powerful military on Earth.
It can destroy everyone of the five eyes, the entire NATO alliance and all the vassals.
It doesn’t need help from anyone to do this. And it can do it in 30 minutes at Mach 9-18 hypersonic speed.
Russia actually commands near-space with a jet built decades ago, MiG-31, the fastest fighter-bomber with no peer at altitude. This machine can take out US satellites, blinding most of the systems of the Hegemon.
Russia has the quietest submarines. This guarantees its strategic nuclear weapons will be launched under any circumstances.
Putin has done all this, built Russian muscle, without a loud voice. He has issued some warnings over the years. But he just demonstrates with live examples and Syrian combat use for most of the hardware (300 weapon systems so far).
He lined up a few hundred thousand troops at his border and what happened to the US and NATO? Who backed down? Where’s the Zelensky army? Where’s all the brave Poles and Baltics? They have had to bring in Islamic crazies from Syrian war. Rational military knows the Russians will turn its enemies to ash in the first hour.
Get over the Putin bashing. You’re ignorant or full of shit. Post it elsewhere.
Have a good day.
Now, now Larch … I was expecting him to put on his cape and fly a couple of cirucuts around the room and maybe rescue a couple of those really attractive Russian ladies in the audience from some of those dour looking men in blue suits. Sadly that did not happen, much to my disappointment, and no doubt the aforementioned females. There is little doubt in my mind that Russian ladies are far better looking than the US variety regardless of who owns the bigger bombs.
However it looks like the idea of ‘say nothing’ but carry a big stick still works.
Cheers Larch, and I love your comments.
John Hagan
In fact he did say plenty, and much more than that. His intent, obviously, was to stay cool, calm and to show that he was not intimidated nor provoked. It worked. Those people who expected theatrics, hysterics and melodrama were disappointed. I think Washington and NATO got the message. Putin will not be provoked by their provocations. He did say, quite coolly, that Russia will respond to any form of aggression.
Yes. He said all he needed to say in one sentence—of course he went on to state that he has the power to do what he said—but I got the impression that that was a red herring. I pray that someone in The Empire got the message and is able to pull the emergency brake on the madness.
This is my fave comment of Vlad’s speech: “Those behind provocations that threaten the core interests of our security will regret what they have done in a way they have not regretted anything for a long time.”.
Nothing more needed to be said really. Putin doesn’t lie or make empty threats, just as Nasrallah doesn’t. What they say one can bank on.
@Larchmonter445
Brilliant! Thank you!
spot on, larch, thank you. especially given putin’s magic pouff dispelling the latest CIA/mi6 inspired coup & all the navalny chatter. this with the blink of an eye…& still it’s not awesome enough for some.
Nothing more for me to say on today’s speech, which I watched live. Very well said, Larchomonter my friend and comrade, very well said indeed.
Auslander
“I think Putin is doing a job that defies criticism.”
this I now agree with fully! I had never bothered to read these annuals previously. I am extremely glad I read this one. over that past year in particular I have dug into Putin and what I have discovered has pleased me no end. I was stunned by the pure sincerity of Putin’s words addressing the welfare of his people, ordinary Russians in relationship with the bureaucracy for the benefits they are entitled to.. of mothers and the humiliation they may encounter in the process of collecting their dues, baby in arms going round unnecessarily.
This must be accomplished Putin insists without such burdens being placed on the people, on the mothers in particular
I was most impressed by this, by Putin’s words overall and the spirit of utter sincerity he projects. what I read of Putin took solid form in those words. I will go further soon as time permits by looking at the speech itself. I cant speak Russian but now that I have the speech even better. I want to look at the man and see his face and the words and the sincerity involved..
but even so given the clear state of Russian military capabilities and the parity to superiority of Russia militarily Putin indeed has done a Job for Russia, and apparently for the world, that is beyond critique. Escobar next door attributes to Xi Jinping the quality of the transformative great personality who emerges at times of general crisis. But if Xi Jinping is such then we have 2 such figures in the world at this point as the current human crisis is indeed supreme.
The second great transformative figure at this time of human crisis is V Putin. Putin is clearly a man of surpassing intelligence and reasonable, balanced personality, of great common sense and patience. Putin is a man or supreme confidence in himself but not to the point of vanity, stupidity. and Putin clearly is a son of the fatherland, motherland…none more Russian than he…a man who job is to see to the well being of his nation and that what he is and does absolutely
look at me! I used to question Putin. now most impressed than I am with V Putin. the only other figure I have ever felt so strongly about in my time was MalcolmX. the truth of Putin’s concern for his people expressed in his words, is most impressive, really heartwarming, enervating and restorative of faith in humanity, in leadership.
I feel good!
Dear Larchmonter 445,
I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts, mostly because you are extremely professional in both outlook and comprehension of the various subjects, while I am just a simple retired plod, or walloper as we were called in Australia.
You continually remind us of just how good VV Putin is and I cannot disagree with that, but what you rarely tell us is just how good and professional the Russian FSB actually is. And what makes old VV Putin so good is the team he has around him, and that must include the FSB
And all of this reminds me of the study I did on MH370 back in 2014, and what I learnt about the CIA, FBI, and how they were utterly outclassed by the Russian FSB.
When Tamerlan Tsarnaev joined the FBI counterintelligence he was sent to Georgia and Chechnya from January to June 2012, and apparently came under notice of the local ‘Intelligence’ and it was reported back initially to the CIA and apparently in September to the FBI which caused John Kerry to remark that Tsarnaev had returned from Russia with a desire to kill, which again demonstrates the lack of professionalism from within the US State Department.
Then we had as the head of the CIA, General David Petraeus, with his liaison with the FBI counterintelligence being Major, soon to be promoted to Lt. Col Paula Broadwell nee Kranz, reporting to the FBI’s James Yacone.
James Yacone was identified during a MSM interview of Dan Oates after the ‘lone-nut’ gun massacre in Aurora Colorado in July 2012, and later his team were identified in regards to the Sandy Hook school psy-op and then at the Boston Marathon bombing, with one of his team holding an electronic device in his right hand. And then we had the set-up of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, and the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, followed by the deaths of two FBI agents, Lorek and Shaw on Friday 17th May (which was released to the MSM on Monday 20th May at the same time that Tsarnaev’s friend Ibragim Todashev was shot dead in his home in Florida by James Yacone (read the Wikipedia description of this incident to comprehend that Todashev could only have been shot by Yacone).
And again, once MH370 is properly examined there are all the links to NATO/US moves to take over the Crimea which Russia totally thwarted, the reality being that the Russian FSB had to have had prior knowledge of this event, and that is what the deaths of Tsarnaev and Todashev were all about, a cover-up of total incompetence by the US with its CIA and FBI.
And thus, if we ever get the opportunity to learn the truth about how the incompetent two got caught by the FSB in their plot to murder the Belarus President, we would have to believe it to be a total farce, and President VV Putin just keeps on behaving as though there is nothing there to be concerned about; his men have got it all covered.
May I have a laugh? William Buchanan Kelly Ogilvie once said to me; “I detest Incompetence!” and I think the Russians agree with him. May peace and joy be with you all.!
I think you are referring to MH-17, which was shot down in Ukraine.
MH-370 was “lost” {lol} off the west Australian coast.
I won’t derail with all the shenanigans regarding that.
If you want an Australian psy_op, really dig into Martin Bryant.
And. Why was PM John Howard in NY on 9/11? I no longer believe “coincidences” like that “just happen”.
He was a leading luminary of 5eyes at the time.
Alexander Downer played more than a cameo role in the Trump/ Russian dossier.
Remember MH-17 had Australian passengers. PM Tony Abbott had agreed to send 3,000 Aussie troops to Ukraine in response to the shoot down. Find that in the memory hole, {if u can.}
If only. If only the FSB would spill some of what they know about these and other intel games.
Dear White Whale,
For a start, I was referring to MH370, which is completely different to MH17, although the Royal House of Saud paid for both. And MH370 is in the Andaman Sea where it was landed and witnessed by at the very least Military Radar from both Malaysia and Thailand.
And on 911, little Johnny Howard was meeting with his boss Rupert Murdoch in New York when the two towers were hit, and then later that morning made his speech to the country (Australia) in which he specifically mentioned the fact that America had suffered another Pearl Harbour, just as required by his handlers.
And as for the Port Arthur Massacre, why don’t you check out who wrote the majority of reports into that incident, including the 7 ASIO operatives shot, three in the café and four at the tollbooth, or the American spooks who were there as well as about 32 ASIO operatives, and members of the PSCC from Canberra, as well as naming the shooter inside the café as Benjamin Overbeeke and the shooter at Seascape as Sgt Michael Charles Dyson, who would have been the killer of Sally Martin who was not shot, but had the back of her head caved in by a blunt instrument (the butt of a rifle). And of course revealing the roles played by the ‘nurse’ Lyn Beavis and her sister Jean Andrews.
But please do not give any credit to Joe Vialls, who ran that event and was filmed in discussion with Hans Overbeeke and Constable Justin Mark Noble of the NSW police on the balcony of the Broad Arrow Café,
That event was my apprenticeship into government skulduggery,
Oh, I missed one. Why don’t you look at the prior knowledge Alexander Downer had in regard to the Bali bombing or the role played by the Australian ADF Captain Rodney Damon Cocks of Melbourne, not only in Bali, but also in Iraq with the bombing of the UN mission there which killed the head of the UN team and then after that his role in Afghanistan.
You forgot also Downer’s foreknowledge of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami from US sources which hit hardest the rebel Aceh Indonesian province. Another one of Bush/Cheney terror attacks ?
And Rodney, an expert in remote control devices, just happened to be on a mobile phone the very moment that the Bali bomb went off. An amazing co-incidence.
Dear Overlander,
Yes! Sorry about that. And of course there was that other quake recorded three days prior about 300 Km south of Hobart, just about where the ASIO base of Macquarie Island, but that earth movement was supposedly linear.
And the Christian Indonesians at Aceh those that survived the earthquake stepped outside and got whacked by the tsunami. Now Joe Vialls was quick off the press and said that the tsunami was created by a ‘mini-nuke’ which I believe was euphemism for an electro-magnetic device which had been tested in the WA outback from 1989 to 96.
But I was never aware that Cocks was an expert in remote control devices, though he did admit to being involved with detonating explosives and stated that the one he witnessed outside the Sari Club was the biggest he’d ever seen, but that wasn’t the real clue. The real clue was that he went back into his room to fetch his head lamp. Now why would a soldier stationed in Timor but on R&R in Bali possess and carry with him a head lamp? (a marvellous way to receive a head shot) That’s the clue as well as the medal he received for services during the emergency following the blast. And again, Joe was extremely quick off the press on this story as well.
But you are correct. Alexander Downer as the then Foreign Minister issued a warning in regard to a ‘terrorist attack’ which became the Bali Bombing. And another interesting piece of information The recently retired Chief Commissioner of Police in Victoria, Graeme Ashton led the Australian Federal Police investigation into the Bali bombing which resulted in him becoming an ‘expert’ in Australian terrorism, and he couldn’t even count to three.
Given it is said in many circles (particularly at Thames) CIA stands for “Clowns & Idiots of America” and FBI “Federal Bureau of Idiots” what can be expected ?
Big Slavic lad
When you analyze something, you look at the whole picture. Putin was cool and smart. Some people expected him to go into hysterics and threats against Ukraine, Washington and NATO for the current situation in the Donbass and wider. He did not. He gave priority to domestic problems and initiatives. The international situation came second. That’s a cool way to send your message, where you could not detect any panic. What in fact he said is that he was not personally intimidated by Ukraine, NATO and Washington, nor was Russia. However, Russia would respond if intimidated or attacked. A professional analyst will understand all of this, especially the way it was presented.
Yes Big Slavic, a very passive speech from Vlad. Now the US Senate just approved more military support and weapons for Ukraine to the tune of $300 Million. I wonder what Putin is waiting for.
War and peace wonders what Putin is waiting for. It is obvious; he’s waiting for the Zio/NATO alliance to chance their arm and then he’ll cut nit off – along with the head.
No need for bluster, braggery, or chest thumping. The enemies of Russia know what’s in store and that is why they have not attacked.
Perhaps there will be no need to actually take the head…
As a Canadian for my people’s sake I rather hope he will not.
But do take the arm. Trust me, that will be enough to make at least 99% of the west collapse sobbing into their safe spaces, so-called.
Putin is promoting policies which will provide the actual material support for the Russian people to make more babies. Most of the programs are designed in the short and long term to achieve this result, which includes health, safety and welfare for all.
War and Peace
“I wonder what Putin is waiting for”. Is he ? If you have been reading articles, you would have seen that he beefed up the Russian military in the Crimea, behind the Donbass and on the frontier with Ukraine. He also made some very serious comments. What else is he supposed to do ? Make the first combat move and be accused of “aggression” ? I think not. He left Ukraine and NATO the honor of making the first combat move. Patience is a virtue.
VVP lambasted the west for its complete absence of condemnation of the attempted coup in Belarus, declaring it as having “outrageous, it crossed the line”.
While the great majority of his speech covered domestic issues and the importance of supporting families (all positive and encouraging policy statements) towards the end he addressed those entities who would intend to harm Russia or Russian interests:
“.. we will respond asymmetrically, harshly and instantly, and we will make the decisions according to our own initiative”. NATO take note.
President Putin underscored the firepower at Russia’s disposal in what was a clear reminder to any hostile groups just what might await them.
Calm, considered, direct and sincere. Pity the west has no such calibre.
A nice and balanced speech.
Nothing radical about moves on Ukraine or decisive about union with Belarus – as was being suggested here.
If the Syrian precedent holds – no big, prior announcement by Putin before intervention – stand by for fireworks in Ukraine.
To Anonymous
That might still come. There was no reason to announce it in this his annual address to the Nation. That could be done in a separate statement, together with Lukashenko, for a start.
I temi importanti fanno parte della riflessione.
Translation to English from DeepL – Mod.
Important issues are part of the reflection.
The biggest nothing burger of 2021 so far:
Pros:
– Moar monez to them children, students, families, unis, infrastructure and health care.
– First time Putin fired shots at the incredibly moronic teaching material (history) for young students.
– Tangent talk about real investment vehicles, which will finance projects (housing, manufacturing…)
– Some side note about the attempt on Lukashenko’s life and trying to reason with the collective West.
Cons:
– No systematic approach about everything concerning the economy and culture.
– Moar of the same liberal talk about investments, digitalization and revolution hyper buzz sectors like health care.
– Incredibly, not one one word about the Rubel as an investment vehicle by the Central Bank; just more “targeting” of inflation. Nothing about illicit cross border transfer of stolen wealth etc.
– Reducing the demographic problem to money payments, esp. pointing out single mothers – no real reason given, which is grounded in new feminist ideology, feminization of men, full spectrum warfare on normal families. Ahh why do I care…
This state of the federation address was hyped like many before and really, should be discouraging to anyone who would like a breakthrough, but nah, new boss is the same as the old boss. The usual suspects on TV were hyping the address, but rofl, I really would be rolling on the floor laughing if it weren’t so predictable.
Putin isn’t playing the Wests game. They want a reaction, they want Russia to descend to their level, they want Putin to act Iike Hitler, frothing at the mouth, he isnt going to. Short, sharp, factual warnings, when action is required he will dismantle US armed forces and NATO, all talk will end. Ultimately what is required is a level of de escalation, Russian, China can go about their business for the long term. The only people hyping the speech were the press. US is in a visible moment of collapse, let it go, let it dismantle itself, Russia will be free without the need to resort to war and thousands of deaths. If war is required Russia will prevail and the West knows it. Personally I don’t want to see Putin acting like an American, bragging, the arrogance, the lies … pointless. All talking to be done on the battlefield when/if necessary.
Nachtigall
“should be discouraging to anyone who would like a breakthrough, but nah, new boss is the same as the old boss.”
I know many would like Putin to be more aggressive in his tone, especially considering the abuse and slurs on Russia by the collective west, but that is not his style, which might perhaps be closer to “speak softly, but carry a big stick”.
I believe his message is clear, from his expression “do not mistake our patience for weakness” which is illustrative of a man who feels in control of the situation.
The real problem for Putin is that you can’t fix stupid, basically you’re speaking to a wall, so there’s no point in trying to reason with them. They will make their move, and they will be destroyed. C’est la vie.
I am so sorry that the crimean response, the military preventive reaction close to the borders and the three vaccines were not a sufficient ‘breakthrough’.
But yes, there are lots of breakthroughs in everyday Netflix movies you are seeing.
They stick like glue.
@Nachtigall
Have you ever considered applying for the job as Putin’s speechwriter? If you could submit a text for him to read in, say, one hour and twenty minutes written with your eloquence, then I’m absolutely convinced he will instantly realise what a fool and embarrassing simpleton he has been all these years.
In short: Put competence in command, at long last.
@aukapusta
@Nussiminen
Nothing, absolutely nothing substantial. This is facts over feelings, my dear colleagues. Putin gets criticized exactly for the stated reasons INSIDE Russia. You get to see the foreign policies of Putin and that’s it. I agree on most of his foreign policies too.
But it’s a big fat difference when it comes to the culture. Most of his criticism is centered around exactly his failures on this front. You know, you haven’t been born there – I’ve been born in the SU, I speak the language, I’ve been brought up in the culture. I’ve got family there. I’ve got the receipts. I do not want to see Russia break up again, dear armchair experts. Every major catastrophe (break up) with colossal consequences was born from within the country. All this flag waving, hurrah patriotism is nil and void, once the West succeeds again.
I do not want my fatherland to be a b** to any country, I want it powerful – culturally powerful – to not be caved and desolved from within. So keep quiet if you do not have any counter-argument.
@Nachtigall
“I do not want my fatherland to be a b** to any country, I want it powerful – culturally powerful – to not be caved and desolved from within.”
My understanding is that during the 90’s Russia was indeed almost dissolved from within….the “get rich quick” soon became the “got robbed quick”.
Since coming to office VVP has had to carefully maneouvre his way through the maze of internal opposition, both from old-style communists and from pro-western ‘liberals’ and many in between. He has only recently been able to somewhat limit the power and influence of many “Atlanticists” —
So what exactly do you expect him to do that he is not doing in your opinion? Please outline some specifics to help illustrate your point(s).
I cannot write a manifesto and I should not. These are my thoughts on the topic:
I see Putin as the defender, tribune of the people and Czar. Everyone in Russia knows that the “United Russia” party is but a shell, to govern Russia by top down method. I do not espouse anything the West calls democracy, which is a system of elite puppeteering – I never voted in any “democratic” election, I have low tolerance for BS. Also all this left/right nonsense is part of Western political ideology. Even the Soviet Union couldn’t be called a “leftist state”, it was socially conservative and economically to the left (which many would also dispute as a state capitalist entity). Therefore all this left/right nonsense is a device used against their most hated enemies, the populists (inverting the meaning of “being for the people” to demagogues). I should also state, that liberalism was an elite-promoted ideology, which is based on fallacies and untenable positions.
1. The most important thing Putin could’ve announced, is that Russia would choose its own civilizational path. A connection to a metaphysical purpose is the time-tested way to connect millions of people to a common destiny – Orthodox Christianity is the most important thing that connect Russians through a thousand years. Russians are also the only ethnos that connects the Bashkirs to Chechens (this was so extremely difficult to admit in the reformed constitution, so that a pretty strange tap dance around the Russian language had to be performed, just to avoid the people in question: Ruski). Simply, choose truth over fiction, truth being “what exists”.
2. From this follows, that the ideological center (despite the prohibition of ideology in the Russian constitution, the entire ideology of the Russian state is liberalism) of Russia cannot be in the West, f.e. Washington. Where laws govern everything in the society, like the family in the West, traditionalism (traditions evolve, despite to the common misconception that they are static) has provided the society with a frame of reference e.g. Chechens to this day, wouldn’t dare to insult elders, because of deep respect for their (hopefully) wisdom. To this day, it is also unacceptable for Russians to put your parents into a senior institutions – you will be shunned by normal people.
Therefore Putin could have said:” We will teach, educate and raise a nation, that respects its elders, commits its people to excellence, with the goal to be the leader in the natural sciences and rehabilitate our Russian code through our classical literature”.
You could even take all the Soviet teaching literature readily out of the national library and use them in the schools in a redacted version. This way you will avoid the ridiculous situation that children learn about decontextualized events on the front of WWII but nothing about the battle for Stalingrad.
Education is the most important thing, which decides the fate of the nation, liberals know that, that’s why this disaster of a teaching curriculum (for the so called “EGE” – unified state exams) is pushed on modern day Russia.
Everything Russian liberals touch, from the constitution to theater programs, is designed to degenerate, de-connect, demoralize and atomize Russian society.
3. The demography disaster: “We realize, that we had to suffer wars and catastrophes in the 20th century, which are echoed in waves of lost generations. Despite popular opinion, money is not an absolute factor, why our women don’t form families and have children. We will form our culture in a way, that will elevate large families to be the most desired and respected institution in our society and also provide high paying job opportunities for the head of the family. I therefore instruct all government institutions…ask all confessions…our plan is to achieve this, that year on year, decade, century…”.
4. Information security: If you do not control what your citizens are propagandized by the direct pipeline of the internet by means of “smart devices” into their brain, someone else will. Nuclear waste is poured into brains of millions every day. You could strike a balance by censoring the internet for children to a certain age, to avoid all out censorship. This can be achieved by an ID system. Those who enable children to circumvent this will be punished severely.
Appoint professional executives to head a communications department, that is tasked to build the infrastructure, service and build IT-platforms.
5. Personal accountability of every government employee. Set goals transparently. Put up a platform, that shows all relevant real-world statistics, performance of all institutions and a transparent public hiring process.
6. The RCB will create rubles for concrete mega projects: Space Ports, ports, high-speed railways, factories etc. Not just like that, but planed, integrated and coordinated with f.e. teaching institutions. The RCB will have to be informed about any large scale transfer of funds from any monetary source to foreign countries and approve of each of these transactions. The ruble value will be dictated to international “markets” (no peg to foreign currencies), special approved banks will be allowed to trade rubles, speculative transactions will be prohibited, maybe a two contour currency with the international one pegged to precious metals (contrary to popular perception hyperinflation takes place if your debt is denominated in foreign currencies). Ruble accounts only exist in the RCB system like for example the “fedwire” system with the Fed.
….
These are just EMERGENCY measures. I could write a whole book on this.
Very good and interesting points! Perhaps the first step towards greater independence will be to completely nationalise the RCB. I believe the existing rules on this are still subject to the US-drafted constitutional legislation, though I am unsure whether the latest changes just passed have a bearing on this. Thank you for your response:-)
@Nachtigall
Deeply regret to inform you that I do have quite some counter-arguments and, therefore, won’t keep quiet.
Like most other people attracted by doom and gloom about Russia, your starting point is that Russia is inferior and the West is invincible. This is, in short, the approach of ’Biswapriyology’ which completely disregards two crucial facts: Firstly, the West is dying and decomposing and, secondly, this is happening precisely because the leaderships of Russia and China defeated the West’s neoliberal onslaught. You pretend to know something about Russia and Russian society based upon you being born and raised there. If so, then it’s plain to see that you have fallen out of contact with the country. As for myself, I don’t have any Russian ancestry whatsoever, but that doesn’t blind me to the fact that Putin’s leadership resonates very well indeed with the majority population. Among this site’s participants, I suggest you familiarise yourself with Katerina who is Russian and doesn’t take any defeatist nonsense, mind you.
Great, so let’s talk. Let me inform you of one fallacy after the another:
1. When did I state, that Russia is inferior to the West? When? The Soviet Union was objectively not only a military giant, but also a scientific one. Even it’s economy was doing well till the beginning of the 80s. This didn’t help the SU. My parents were convinced that the SU has ironclad command of its destiny. They couldn’t believe, that they would have to run, because a civil war was about to happen in their region. It happened. Thousands of Russians were cut-down.
I am confident about Russian people, about their potential and determination and while also realizing that often times elites drag a country down into hell. All I state, is the dead end, which will wait for Russia if it pursues liberal policies – in the long run. Yes, it can exist as a resource appendage for a long time, but I don’t wish for it to happen. The only country that is entering the 21st century with confidence is China.
2. The West is defeated, when all its centers of power are eliminated. Right now, it looks that way, but the collective West is still a very big danger. I think, we haven’t seen the madness yet, that the West is able to unleash.
3. When did I say Russia was defeated? If it were true I wouldn’t be in this forum. I would suggest you would familiarize yourself with the homegrown media in Russia. I follow and receive information about Russia through many channels, from every walk of life. Most of it from academics, economists and people that worked in the Russian administration in the 90s. It depends on which societal strata, from which region, from which professional background and the age of the person you talk to or receive the information from. More and more generations are living in Russia, which have no clue how life was like in the SU. Their standard of living has risen 4 times while Putin was in power. Real wages have been in decline for years now. Why do you think the Medvedev government was terminated if everything was going great?
The question is, how Russia can stay on top and prosper in the 21st century. In an environment of a potential ring of fire.
Lukashenko was scheduled to be killed this year, including his family – if haven’t noticed…
Interesting that you say you were born in the SU and have the SU deep within your heart. Nice to hear that. Maybe i was confused by your choice of Name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachtigall_Battalion
If you are indeed a Russophile, remember the size of Russia…and the vast achievements of VVP and his team, in the last 30 years. I feel confident that now the external perimeter has been secured, the internal contradictions will be addressed….
Nachtigall as in nightingale.
The problem with hope strategy is that it seldom works. Secret plans can also be conjured up on the fly and be nothing but illusions.
Put another Gorbachev, Yeltsin or Medvedev (with collective elite handlers) in charge and these accomplishments will be blown to a trillion pieces in time. Afterwards, these fools will promote pizzas again…
Annoying jackals and asymmetrical responses aside, the key takeaway for me is this:
—–
https://tass.com/politics/1280893
“And today, family, friendship, mutual assistance, and compassion have come to the fore for us. Spiritual and moral values, which some countries are forgetting about, have, on the contrary, made us stronger, and we will always uphold and protect these values,” Putin pledged…
…Putin added that the service of representatives of traditional religions had become “the spiritual backbone of society, as it always was in difficult times.” That said, the head of state addressed the clergy present in the hall, “I would like to take a deep bow before you all. Thank you very much.”
—–
A decent summary of foreign policy, which he (rightly) spent little time on:
https://sputniknews.com/russia/202104211082690116-russia-will-find-a-way-to-protect-its-interests-if-other-countries-refuse-dialogue-putin-says/
I think that most important thing is give messages to the “ partners politicians “ & people, no matter if it’s looking like soft talk , because contend it’s leading way to understanding what that means.
Putin just announced a significant change in Russia’s foreign policy and international relations.
In one short sentence: From now onwards, Russia will reply to any form of aggression against her with more aggression!
About time!
I must also congratulate the people of Russia for having a president who – during a pandemic – just improved the welfare of the people, especially mothers and school kids.
if we have to take the vaccine, Westerners should be allowed to have a choice. Can we have the Russian or Chinese one in the west? The west always talks about how bad “hate” is. Well, hating nations is hate too. The worst type of hate since it leads to wars that effects millions of lives.
Putin’s main theme of his speech was that Russia plans to be here for a long time. The west is trying to destroy Russia with sanctions and “hate” speech against Russia 24/7. Putin’s speech is to counter that mania.
At the end of the speech, he mentioned the attempt to overthrow Belarus by the West like it did to Ukraine in 2014. The “silence” from the West about this is deafening. Thus, there was a real attempt after all.
The Ukraine situation he can not say out loud anything about that since it is a very fluid situation. He mentioned that Russia will defend Russia’s interests. Ukraine is right on Russia’s border, It is a large nation, so Russia is right to be concerned by US ukraine’s ( US controlled Ukraine) actions in the Donbass and on the borders of Crimea.
I have the intuition that one shouldnt take russian vaccine in the west.
Nothing easier than corrupting it to, as usual, blame russians for everything and their dog.
Russia should seriously consider vaccine tourism. I would travel with my whole family there (or to the embassy or consulate) but would never take it from local health services for fear of corruption.
Yep the same with me: I would travel with my whole family there (or to embassy or consulate).
Would be nice if someone in Russia considers this.
The e-visa initiative sounds promising, however I fear it will likely not extend to 5-eyes citizens.
The Empire would never allow someone back in if they left to take the Russian vaccine.
Vaccination tourism to Russia is already happening.
You can get vaccinated at the airport, once you arrive to Moscow. There are also points of vaccination even in the stores and malls. No passport is required for this. Everybody’s welcome.
No surprise, some well deserved social gifts for the poors(good).
But he remains a neoliberal IMF compatible.He has no say on the Central bank policy as it is BRI affiliated.
On the strategico militaro plan, no surprise as well as RF never says in advance, and during a speech of 1h20 min, what it is going to do(otherwise no surprise). Remember polite green men in Crimea..
If something becomes hot on the war front, Putin will be back alone for a short statement on peak time(5 min maximum).
He will meet Luka tomorrow, but nothing final expected.
Friday the security council will meet, this may be much more serious indeed.
Putin’s conservative economic policy cost him a lot of political capital. It is for this very reason, however, that Russia is able to weather Western sanctions and low oil prices. He deserves credit for that.
One could see the pride and patriotism of the higher echelons present in the adress.
Their faces and body language told me they are ready for whatever comes.
I also read the country stopped to hear him speak. Here when the president addresses the nation, we change channels.
Here in the UK, many of us do indeed change channels …and prefer to listen to the Russian President….
After first, quick glimpse it seems that Russia does not take West very seriously.
Is that confidence result of something that’s not being said in the speech?
In part about economics, Putin briefly mentioned something big will happen in July, but I fail to understand what could that be.
Maybe implementation of long awaited SWIFT alternative but
I still do not see safe enough technological base and infrastructure.
What was said clearly enough is folowing:)
The times of impudent hubris for Soroshoid species are over. Expect crackdown on NGOs, “influencers”, bloggers etc. for every single insult or fake news they come up.
Probably not in the form of beatings or jailtime as their handlers would like.
It will be in the form of debilitating fines, judging by former part of speech that was all about capital, dividends, tax, and investments.
Altogether, suprisingly unimpressive.
Did missed anything about NS2? My fault, or..?
The careful inclusion of a few words on spiritual traditions having significance without specific, weight bearing reference to these, the length of time given to the global Corvid phenomena of the last year, with all too well known and reported information, generally a disappointing address.
Big stakes time, no point in justifying the lack of compelling substance on political, economic, war threat due to Judo/chess master world-hero tactics.
Crucial part is….
“We don’t want to burn bridges. But, if someone sees our good intentions as indifference or weakness, and they want to burn the bridges, or even BLOW UP the (CRIMEAN) bridges, they should remember this: Russia’s response will be asymmetric, swift, and tough”
For the rest not as dramatic as many have desired, but message is loud and clear. What struck me while watching address was the body language of Shoygu, Lavrov and Matviyenko – tired and warried, but angry (especially Shoygu) & determent. Empire has been warned once again.
“What struck me while watching address was the body language of Shoygu, Lavrov and Matviyenko – tired and warried, but angry (especially Shoygu) & determent.”
To repeat once more: One day Putin-haters will remember him with nostalgia.
Agree. Unique class of leader.
You respond “asymmetrically” when you are dealing with a stronger opponent.
Indeed, combined strength of NATO (in numbers) is superior to Russia alone. But “asymmetrically” can also mean ganging up with China & Iran and dealing the blows in many places where Russia is not yet involved, like Taiwan. Or when someone spits in your face (like what empire is daily doing to Russia) you kick him in the nuts… also very asymmetrical but highly effective.
Sarajevo veteran:
NATO strength? Are we talking of today’s ‘nato’? Would that be the one where the pillar of armed forces, Germany, can not field one full battalion of a main battle tanks at this time, let alone be able to support said battalion for more than a week in the field of combat if that long?
Auslander
Author http://rhauslander.com/
Never The Last One, paper back edition. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1521849056 A deep look in to Russia, her culture and her Armed Forces, in essence a look at the emergence of Russian Federation.
An Incident On Simonka, ebook version. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ERKH3IU March 2014. NATO Is invited to leave Sevastopol, one way or the other.
Oh come one Auslander… NATO includes such hyperpowers such as Albania, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, North of Macedonia, half of Baznia and Herzegovina, Montenigeria, Bugaria, Romania, NATO occupied Kosovo*… Just a thought of these galactic military giants facing Russia is enough to put mighty laughte… ahm, fright into Russia.
Good one …hilarious
You are confusing “asymmetric warfare” with asymmetric response.
Asymmetric warfare is usually undertaken by a weaker side. If you have tanks and I don’t, then I will have to resort to IEDs.
Asymmetric response, on the other hand, is prerogative of a stronger party. If you kill one of mine, I will kill ten of yours.
“Our aims are absolutely clear: They are a high living standard in the country and a secure, free and comfortable life.” Putin
I don’t see this speech varying from that statement
For those who wanted fire and brimstone and banging of shoes on podiums lol, you did not get it of course.
But there is plenty of fire and brimstone, in very short sentences. Of course, everybody is running to read Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book to figure out what Putin really said. He said Russia will do what Russia will do and the rest of them are like yapping hyenas. Now hyenas eat carrion and they are first very cowardly and they run in packs.
While we patiently wait for the full transcript, RT ledes:
Putin promises ‘asymmetrical’ response to any threats made against Russia, promises those provoking Moscow will come to regret it
and Sputnik with
Russia Will Find a Way to Protect Its Interests If Other Countries Refuse Dialogue, Putin Says
(We cannot live with them, and we cannot live without them and they are going to post their typical short pieces where it is difficult to figure out the whole story – what a frustrating methodology!)
At least Sputnik posted a very reasonable summary here:
https://sputniknews.com/russia/202104211082685975-live-updates-russian-president-vladimir-putins-annual-address-to-the-federal-assembly/
What Tass found most important is:
Putin vows Russia will always uphold its spiritual and moral values
The piece that I liked, is: “Russia’s president said that “those staging any provocations that threaten the core interests of [Russia’s] security will regret it like nothing before”.
Putin expressed hope that no country would dare to cross “red lines” in relations with Moscow but said that it is Russia that will determine where these lines are, in each specific case. “
“He said Russia will do what Russia will do and the rest of them are like yapping hyenas. ”
Just little addon on this excelent analogy as a reminder for pack of western allies:
Hyenas eat their own, when fell in battle.
The hyenas in Jungle Book were cowardly hangers-on and I assume that Putin was, with one wave, dismissing all the little sycophants of the primary predator Shere Khan.
Tabaqui was not a hyena, he was a jackal. Smaller, less dangerous, more irritating and eager to ingratiate himself with the powerful bully killer.
With respect amarynth, it was not about “you did not get it of course.”…..it was about shit hitting the literal ceiling – bidet calling VVP “a soulless killer”, then the UkroNazis wanting to violently attack Donbass with support from West/Nato, then the Belarus coup attempt, then prospects of cancellation of NS2, sanctions and expulsion of Russian Federation diplomats, Turkey proving moral and military support to UkroNazis, etc, can go on and on and on…. if any/all of those do not directly hurt Russian Federation interests – then dont know what else will? ….what is VVP trying to prove? … that he is Prophet Job(peace be upon him)?
Have been hearing essentially the same coming out from VVP – year after year after year. It appears that the only thing that might force VVP to “wake up” and smell the coffee and do something that the AZ’s “understand” that Russian Federation is serious now is when a new Wehrmacht might finally and violently come knocking on the doors of Moscow city again – God forbid.
Best wishes.
And what would you have Putin do? Make a fuss?
I’ve been waiting for the financial shoe to drop, referring to Lavrov’s China visit. I think it is dropping but early to report.
Otherwise, Putin has dealt with the ‘soulless killer’ comment.
We’ll see the outcome of Belarus in technicolor after court cases – in the meantime, that little adventure is fully foiled.
The Ukies are running backward, and forward and rolling sideways – but, they are running. Their world has collapsed.
A little quote from Rostislav Ishchenko:
“It would have been difficult not to panic when Biden, instead of sending not two but twenty destroyers to the Black Sea, stops even that pitiful squadron in Cyprus that was moving to the Ukrainian coast to show the flag. Putin never picks up the phone, no matter how hard Zelensky tries to contact him. Lavrov doesn’t answer Kuleba’s calls. Merkel and Macron cannot be reached either, and then, the icing on the cake, the same Biden offers Putin talks without any preconditions. Russia is in no hurry to accept this offer, but the American president is patiently waiting.
This has never happened in the memory of Ukrainian politicians. This, in their opinion, could not happen by definition. But it happened: the Ukrainian world collapsed. ”
The Wehrmacht, or NATO, or the collective west will not knock on Moscow’s door for valid fear of being obliterated and if they still try (which they might) they will be obliterated. Probably all of us too depending on weapons used.
Just go read Larchmonter445’s comments. He has said it all. No need for me to repeat.
In the east, we listen to what is said…
we listen more intently what is NOT said…
will wait for the heavy-hitters to comment more
but in VVP speech, I heard ‘heavenly music’… v bad news for the west!
be well be safe
I think it’s an expectation issue. There are people on Twitter who were literally expecting him to announce WW3…
Combined with the current in-your-face rhetoric & culture, if you’re not flinging insults, threats and accusations, people are underwhelmed.
what is NOT said…
1) VVP + Lavrov + Shoigu + up to 80% of the ‘royal-blood’ attendee there are NOT wearing mask
read 1) the air flow is one direction 2) pandemic/virus is not as serious (anymore) 3) sputnikV is their shield and confidence
2) single mother was specifically mentioned – Think which world leader that controls the nuk and super killer boy stuff would go so low as to care for the single mother and her children’s survival? Bless VVP his heart!
3) Birth rate – I hear as russia’s OBOR plan – in as little as 5 years, those russian would have 1st gen that aims for the ultimate glory of the motherland, never seen b4, on the solid foundation VVP has laid! And they will know they are russain blood! (a scary thought for mother russia’s enemy)
and more…
and what/where will the west be? Listen. Observe. Not said.
be well be safe
p/s was waiting for Andrei Martyanov’s comments on his blog… Nothing? Too obvious? Pls share your thoughts with us, sir. Thanks :)
Yes, I found that line: “Russia’s president said that “those staging any provocations that threaten the core interests of [Russia’s] security will regret it like nothing before” to be ambiguous in the English translation. “Those” can mean individuals or groups of individuals or state institutions and so forth.
Assuming that the translation is a very careful and good one, this apparent ambiguity is a gem in the art of rhetoric –
(In the Cuban Crises the fellas on Okinawa got orders to launch, but they were at DEFCON 2, which prohibits launch. (MACE cruise missiles with fat nuke aimed (!) at China, ‘cept for one…)
One battery commander, seeing this and observing another battery preparing to launch, ordered his MPs to go and stop the launch. At gunpoint. “Try to launch and I shall shoot you, Sir” – so it has been reported. This is one interpretation I take from Putin’s ambiguous phrase .
Chill. It’s not Putin’s style to brag or issue threats on podiums.
Things are happening in the background as usual.
—–
https://t.me/rtintl/4272
⚡️10 US Staffers Persona Non Grata!
The US Deputy Ambassador to Russia’s been handed a note announcing 10 American Embassy staffers are Persona non grata.
They must leave the Russian Federation by May 22 (Russian Foreign Ministry).
Further steps in response to recent US sanctions will follow in the near future, Moscow added.
—–
https://tass.com/politics/1281111
According to the Kremlin press service, during the talks it is planned “to discuss a wide range of issues related to further development of Russian-Belarusian relations of strategic partnership and alliance along with prospects for cooperation within the framework of the Union State.”
—–
https://tass.com/politics/1281075
MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Russia will scrutinize the prospect of military and technical cooperation with Turkey, if Ankara delivers drones to Ukraine, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin’s annual State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly.
I don’t think the US/NATO give a damn about stern warnings from Putin. I don’t see anything in this speech that will deter the ideologues in D.C. and Brussels. And I don’t understand why Putin continues to ignore the requests from Donbass to become part of Russia? Wouldn’t making the Donbass part of Russia be a much more effective way to prevent war there?
“Wouldn’t making the Donbass part of Russia be a much more effective way to prevent war there?”
No, it wouldnt.
Russia takes Donbas.
NATO takes Ukraine.
Russia deploy to Donbas.
NATO attacks Donbas via proxy Ukraine.
After battle truce is signed, back to square one, Alas, Donbas and Ukraine are destroyed.
Suckers game.
Do you have no understanding of international law? Specific processes have to occur for Donbass to separate, let alone be absorbed into Russia.
They can’t win the separation part without defeating the Ukies completely, forcing the Kiev government to surrender to them.
Do you think 30,000 men with small arms, no air force and a hundred tanks can win against the Ukies backed by NATO?
So, it’s a frozen conflict.
Now, you have diplomacy. However, Kiev refuses to obey its agreement, Minsk 2.
So, the option left is to wait for Ukraine to fall to pieces.
Donbass is not and never was like Crimea. It is a chunk of Ukraine. Ukraine is still a UN recognized country. Russia cannot enter Ukraine in force without being branded and sanctioned as an “aggressor” nation.
So, how does the conflict end?
Six years later we have no solution. Orlov says move all the people and leave the land to the locusts and use Russian robots to keep the Ukies out. As wacky as it gets . . .
Putin’s solution appears to be wait until Kiev crashes on its own corruption and evil.
Then, pick the pieces Russia wants.
The other side of the coin is Ukies might produce some young bright leaders who can change the paradigm in Kiev, shut down the ATO bombardment of Donbass, work out a solution for its borders and its economy.
That might take another six years or more. But Ukraine has rational citizens. They just don’t dare enter politics where oligarchs, murderers, and psychopaths control the nation.
The change in countries comes with them hitting bottom. Ukraine has not hit bottom yet.
Putin is waiting for that crash. Patience is a tactic and a strategy.
Dear L’archmonter
What’s is needed for Ukraine to hit the bottom? I’ve read reports about the labour force leaving for the West, that their army is not disciplined enough and made by junkies.
What do you think is needed for the crash to happen?
@Larchmonter445
“That might take another six years or more. But Ukraine has rational citizens. They just don’t dare enter politics where oligarchs, murderers, and psychopaths control the nation.”
Agree entirely.
Putin has the current coup-based Ukie-thug leadership in a bind.
The executive order by Ze declaring the intention to win back the “occupied territories” of Crimea and the Donbass is actually the last thing they would want.
Imagine if a true political settlement could be reached (yes, I know Crimea is a done deal and it’s never going back, but bear with me here).
This would have the effect of bringing back a huge number of pro-Russia voters, more than enough to tip the scales in an election. So the thugs get voted out of power, and the first order of business for the new government is a war crimes investigation into the killing of civilians by the Ukro-thugs.
Bye-bye Zelensky, hello slammer.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is bleeding to death economically, and the Euro-zone will not support in any meaningful way. I give it no more than a year before the status of ‘completely failed state’ is reached.
Putin simply has to wait it out. Which is exactly what he is doing.
hello Larchmonter445,
I want to say that I have admired your posts and always look for them here and elsewhere. I appreciate what you write and I take it seriously.
I confess to not understanding the exact details of what has to transpire in order for the Donbass to become part of Russia. I observed in 2014 the request of the DNR to join Russia, and then again the statement by Alexander Zakharchenko made in 2017, asking to have the DPR integrate with Russia. After all the years of shelling and murder inflicted by the UAF on the Donbass, I assumed it would be a given that the populace there would be quite in favor of such a decision.
It seems unlikely that the UAF would continue with the attacks on the Donbass were it to be made part of Russia. I understand that the Minsk agreements remain unfulfilled, are very unlikely to ever be fulfilled, and thus this is a frozen conflict. Yet that has not prevented the US and the UAF from moving tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks and artillery to the Donbass border, in conjunction with the statement by Zelensky that Ukraine will reclaim the Donbass and Crimea. I think it remains to be seen if there will be no conflict — of course, it would be insane but are these neocon-nazi-ideologues essentially insane?
I used to think that the US would not dare to admit Ukraine into NATO even if Ukraine actually qualified to do so. But the neocons who stole the US election are well-described by Andrei Martyanov, they do not understand modern warfare and believe their own propaganda. I think they are capable of anything.
Both the US and Kiev are busy crashing — both are failed states run by gangsters at the Federal level. I think that war is what they plan to resort to (the age old ploy to “rally the people”), which is why the propaganda is so thick in the West and there is such a corresponding silence on such things at the attempted murder of Lukashenko or the movement of the UAF forces to the Donbass and Crimean borders. The people of the US and the EU are being prepared for war with Russia. War will be used to explain the impending financial collapse and be used to justify ever increasing censorship.
I certainly don’t think 30,000 men with small arms, no air force, and 100 tanks can stop the UAF. Perhaps it is a vain hope, but my first post was made in hopes that Putin would make some sort of announcement that Russia would consider the requests of the DNR (and LNR, assuming they have the same request) to become part of Russia. I assumed the same process that took place in Crimea would take place in the Donbass, possibly with “polite green men” helping to prevent UAF interference. Should the Donbass be made part of Russia, I don’t believe the UAF would be so likely to mass troops and tanks on the border.
However, I think NATO will attempt to integrate Ukraine regardless of whether or not Russia would move to integrate the Donbass. I hope I am wrong.
regards,
Perimetr
“However, I think NATO will attempt to integrate Ukraine regardless of whether or not Russia would move to integrate the Donbass. I hope I am wrong.”
VVP has just explained the position of Russia on this topic. An official NATO takeover of the Ukraine is a Red Line. Russia would respond….and it will not be a happy ending for NATO.
The conflict thus remains frozen…until the Ukraine and USA collapse under their own hubris.
Crimea had a special status by international law, as a semi-sovereign region (like Åland between Finland and Sweden, which is for now choose to be a part of Finland, but according to intl law has the right to leave Finland, and then, as a sovereign state, can vote to join Sweden).
Crimea leaving Ukraine was done following international law.
Donbass on the other hand is an integral part of a sovereign state. It is not so easy to create a sovereign state in that situation. (The Kosovo thing was aginst international law, but, as we all know, that does not matter to US, EU, NATO, FN….)
“I don’t see anything in this speech that will deter the ideologues in D.C. and Brussels.”
Napoleon was not deterred with speeches. Hitler was not deterred with speeches.
The Russians and their allies took Paris.
The Russians and their allies took Berlin.
Ideologues won’t ever be deterred with speeches.
See Japan, 1941. Then Japan, 1945.
It’s a shame all of that came to pass.
Being prepared and ready to act is the foundation of right action.
While Western media continue to manage public opinion regarding everything Russian, those of us who take the time to discern objective reality through alternative sources cannot but conclude that Putin is a remarkable statesman who, while defending his land and people from severe external threats, intelligently balances domestic needs and factions with a vision for their future.
It is hoped that his reference to the need for spiritual values, which mentioned the chaotic decline of the West, is more than political lip-service.
However, the most important thing missing from his programme is any mention of the social devastation caused by the raising of children by single mothers. The greatest long term social question faced by Russia is how to provide for children’s needs without financing the ongoing decay of the nuclear family.
One needs only to read Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s prophetic 1960s research paper on demographic trends in the USA, in which he predicted that increasing out-of-wedlock births and increasing single parent child-raising would result in increasing rates of school dropouts, violent crime, drug addiction, and imprisonment among Black Americans who, by populating the lowest economic tier, were most dependent upon social transfer payments.
If Putin wants to avoid what America is now experiencing, he must somehow motivate men to stay with their families rather than motivate them to abandon their families to the state by increasing child-related payments for single mothers relative to those received by two parent families.
Very good speech…important domestic issues…important for ordinary Russian people.
Nothing about Ukrainian BS and it is really good thing
Couple of very very serious warnings to idiots who thonk th a t they can pick on Russia and that is it
By the way I have seen that Russia entered GDP positive growth …modest but it is good sign.
Hopefully it will get momentum later in this year
This is valuable information, and of course, as such it will be boycotted by most Western media, including most social media.
If Facebook can permanently ban Pepe Escobar, for instance who frequently writes on this site, does this not demonstrate our need to have the facility installed to share materials from here to more social media platforms? I earnestly entreat TheSaker to examine the sharing system deployed by Commondreams.org.
commondreams.org also bans people for any reason or none at all, as I can attest from first-hand experience.
A system like theirs might be a good idea, but I’d advise staying far away from their site.
Agreed. I’ve had the same experience.
They’re DNC sheepherders for the left (especially the non-woke left).
A lot of the speech focused on demographics. Ok Russia’s population growth is slightly negative but on the positive side infant mortality is at record low.
https://tass.com/society/1266319
(Countries with high birth rate usually have high infant mortality rates)
The weakest aspect is male life expectancy. It took a hit during this Covid pandemic.
For those who have opinions but no facts, and for those who have facts with no sources, and for those who post quickly every new article without any understanding of the facts, sources and context, here are two esteemed analysts who shine the light on what the hell happened to the war that was supposed to break out in Ukraine.
The titles of their articles tell you a lot. Thierry Meyssan and Rostislav Ishchenko on what became of Zelensky-Biden’s hot war against Russia:
Deserters of Field Marshal Zelensky
https://ukraina.ru/opinion/20210421/1031195469.html
The Allies Should Die for Kiev?
https://www.voltairenet.org/article212773.html
Read slowly and absorbed the maturity of their work.
@Larchmonter, “For those who have opinions but no facts, and for those who have facts with no sources, and for those who post quickly every new article without any understanding of the facts, sources and context”
Can you tell us where the “Tartus Express” is loaded and perhaps most importantly, why is it done there?
ps:From 2013 – Строительство военной гавани в городе Новороссийск
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY3QAC56BA8
and for your information a video with the project in Balaclava mentioned today by V. Putin, it is an interesting project which will replace a brownfield site (a quarry crushing plant, which in addition to the noise emitted a lot of dust when it was in operation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-6jJ7xk8p0
@Kristol
Novorossiysk and Sevastopol are the primary Russian ports for the Syrian/Tartus Express.
@Larchmonter445,
You mention the port of Novorossiysk, that’s good, that’s an improvement compared to your comments a little while ago (…), but if you had looked for the information concerning the second part of my question “why” you would have found that the Syrian/Tartus Express mainly uses the port of Novorossiysk and this for logistic reasons.
I hope that one day you will have the opportunity to visit the Krasnodar Region and Crimea instead of doing
” analysis à la Bellingcat” from your sofa…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqnd51z5tLQ
Good day.
I take the following from the 4rth point from the following Sputnik article ( https://sputniknews.com/russia/202104211082692692-red-lines-coup-attempts-coexistence-key-takeaways-from-putins-address-to-the-federal-assembly/) ;
– Mentioning the recently uncovered foreign-backed plot to assassinate Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his family and to stage a coup in Belarus, Putin said this plot “crossed all boundaries” of legitimate intercourse between nations. Commenting on the plot’s details – including plans to shut down the Minsk power grid and shut down the city’s infrastructure and communications, Putin suggested that “apparently, it’s not for no reason that our Western colleagues have stubbornly rejected numerous proposals by the Russian side to establish an international dialogue in the field of information and cybersecurity.”
The above is really the problem and perfectly sums up (with what is wrong) with President Putin’s thinking. He wants to have an “international dialog” after the AZ’s got caught red-handed to “assassinate Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his family and to stage a coup in Belarus”.!!!
Moreover, is it not ironic that, President Putin and RF have been consistently saying that the US is “not agreement capable” and yet, now they want an “international dialog” after this event !!?… A person of President Putin’s intelligence and caliber knows that the US/West have broken almost all international rules and they keep making their own “rules based international order”, collectively to target RF – and still President Putin wants a dialog with them ! This is honestly mind numbing. One wonders if President Putin even realizes that even if US/West does agree to a dialog, will they keep their word after agreeing to it? Did the West ever keep its word in the past?
Best Wishes
The Foreign Policy Segment of President Putin’s ‘State of the Nation’ Address Today.
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/
Breaking
Ukrainian Armed Forces are shelling the outskirts of Gorlovka, using 120mm mortars close to the settlement of the Gagarin mine. #Donbass
Update: The Ukrainian security service has declared high alert for all its military units in all areas from Kiev to Donetsk, Lugansk, but also in those near Crimea.
U.S. considers more weapons shipments to Ukraine amid Russian buildup.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/21/us-weapons-ukraine-russia-483908?fbclid=IwAR0xVI8VQs26CFChBelWJxUbUKSOG0S8OXC3zhVNM7SqpxJ0TybUe-OZBVc
As they are just starting now in Moscow and St Pete, very low participation in all other cities(Navalny protests), eventhough billions in free MSM propaganda has be invested by the usual suspects.
Maximum crowd in Omsk, 2k.
Same other big cities as low as 300 down to…1 yes only one in Chita, 50 in Khabarovsk,18 in Buriat.
+- 6 or 7k (rest of RUS), of course there will be more people in M and ST P.
On the one hand, the speech de-escalated world tension. Not a peep from western media. Not a peep today about Alex Navalny. That was nice.
On the other hand, bold it was not. Nothing about de-connecting from SWIFT or introducing any gold backed currencies.
I truly wonder how strong the Russian economy really is, as Putin constantly speaks about it in these speeches. When I write that I mean that I think it is much weaker than Russia would like it to be.
If that is the case, Putin playing things very close to the vest makes more sense.
I think that maybe a storm has passed when Biden offered Putin a summit opportunity. That felt like the West blinking. We will see closer to the end of May when the weather clears, but for now things feel more stable than they did last week.
Those who expected a fiery speech from an indignant Vladimir Putin — and by ‘who’ I mean the Empire’s minions, running dogs — will be disappointed by VVP’s speech.
Why? Because VVP has just delivered a confident speech and through it demonstrated that neither he nor the RF leadership are rattled by all the provocations that have been thrown at Russia. A rattled Putin thumping the table and devoting much of his speech warning the Russian legislature of impending danger is what they want to see. They want to see a Putin put off-balance by their provocations; and as a result, a Putin losing patience, becoming more prone to making impulsive and badly considered decisions harmful to RF’s interests.
Instead what they got was — despite the heightened tension — a self-assured VVP, a VVP in control of developments, devoting a great chunk of his speech speaking about the safety, well-being and development of his people, and his hopes for them. Only near the end did he speak about recent hostile events orchestrated by the West — rightly dismissing RF’s odious adversaries in Europe as ‘hyenas’; issuing a warning about RF’s redlines; a warning not to misread RF’s reticence as weakness; and gently reminding the Hegemon and its hyenas about RF’s ability to hurt them unexpectedly and hard by reiterating RF’s progress in developing and — more significantly — deploying hypersonic weapons.
Yes, a remarkably unbelligerent speech by the leader of the only other major nuclear state in the face of patience-sapping provocations — disappointing for the Empire but assured and steadfast for the rest.
This is my reading also, though better stated than I could have managed.
I would only add that VVP’s emphasis on traditional values, the family, and spirituality were most apt. As was the reminder that here the West has lost its way, if not completely lost its senses.
”At the same time, unfortunately, everyone in the world seems to be used to the practice of politically motivated, illegal economic sanctions and to certain actors’ brutal attempts to impose their will on others by force. But today, this practice is degenerating into something even more dangerous – I am referring to the recently exposed direct interference in Belarus in an attempt to orchestrate a coup d’état and assassinate the President of that country. At the same time, it is typical that even such flagrant actions have not been condemned by the so-called collective West. Nobody seemed to notice. Everyone pretends nothing is happening.”
Putin knows perfectly well whom he is dealing with: the so-called collective West. And Russia will continue to stir up considerable trouble to the latter. To wit: In addition to her foiling of Western conspiracies abroad, Russia’s impressive internal development as outlined extensively by Putin’s speech serves the purpose of keeping the beast at bay. Russia will never again have to fight a war on her own soil. The West is on its last legs.
Putin and Russia make a difference — hecklers and presstitutes do not.
When Russia has strong, perspicacious leaders such as Stalin and Putin, the West along with its entire fabric of society can be seen for the irrefutable rubbish that it is. This fact constitutes the very oxygen of Western Russophobia.
Stalin had millions of citizens murdered, tortured, starved and frozen to death. He wanted to build a powerful communist realm he would rule.
Putin has done nothing of the sort, wanting to build a powerful Russia based on its Christian foundations.
Way different.
Stalin, like Putin, is held in high regard in today’s Russia, mind you. Russians just don’t care about Western ”oracles” such as Robert Conquest and his fiction garbage, mostly inspired by Ukronazi fairy-tales. Stalin inherited a war-ravaged, starving country with wooden ploughs and left it with spaceships and nuclear weapons. Doesn’t resonate too well with Western notions of lesser peoples.
Изучайте материальную часть истории, а не ссылайтесь на не проверенные источники.
К высшей мере социальной защиты (растрел) были привлечены (с 1929 по 1954 гг) около 600000 человек.
Официальные данные специальной комиссии в 1991 году.
В это число входят лица осуждённые и по уголовным статьям.
Делайте вывод.
Yandex translate. Mod:
Study the material part of the story, and do not refer to unverified sources.
To the highest measure of social protection (execution) about 600,000 people were involved (from 1929 to 1954).
Official data of the special commission in 1991.
This number includes persons convicted under criminal articles.
Make a conclusion.
President Putin’s 78 minute speech presented a clear and factual summary of the state of the Russian Federation. He spent the first hour or so on domestic, social and economic issues and approximately the last 15 minutes on defensive military preparedness directed at poignant foreign matters concerning the national security of Russia.
My overarching concern is the avoidance of regional and possibly hemispherical war as much as possible. It is incumbent on all observers of the current situation to look at the hard facts.
As I see it, what is really driving the tension upwards relative to Ukraine – Russia relations is primarily Ukraine’s problems in the areas of its domestic economy and internal political struggles.
The service sector of Ukraine’s economy employees approximately 61 percent of the workforce and over half of its GDP. Ukraine is a country of energy transit, historically transporting Russian and Caspian oil and gas to Western Europe and the Balkans, through its territory.
See: https://www.nordeatrade.com/en/explore-new market/ukraine/economical-context
President Zelensky sees the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a loss of income for Ukraine and demands it be halted. However in 2019, Russia agreed to continue the transit of natural gas through the Ukraine for 13 more years until 2034.
See: https://www.politico.eu/article/maros-sefcovic-ukraine-russia-gas-deal-should-put-nord-stream-criticism-in-perspective/ .
The United States is raising fears of a “security risk” for Europe because of its dependency on Russian gas but their obvious agenda is to be a supplier of natural gas to Europe across the Atlantic Ocean, which is not cost effective at all for the EU.
Clearly Zelensky is being manipulated by the US and his political handlers in Ukraine to foment antagonism with Russia. He doesn’t realize that Putin could cancel the 13 year agreement after the second pipeline is finished if he wanted in order to further damage Ukraine’s economy. Zelensky doesn’t have the foresight to see himself a pawn in the geopolitical competition between the US and Russia and has exacerbated the tension by foolishly seeking NATO membership.
As I’ve written before, NATO has inserted itself into the conflict like a malignant virus and ratcheted up the fire that will light off the tinderbox of war.
Putin said beginning at the 1:27:38 minute mark of his speech that, ” … usually we don’t even respond to these events, we want to keep good neighborly relations … but we see what’s happening in the real world picking on Russia without any reason … Russia will respond asymmetrically, it will be quick and it will be tough … “
He remarked at the 1:29:08 minute mark, “Everyone coming up with the provocations are a threat to out interests will regret the things they do … “
Putin’s chilling statement at the 1:29:48 minute mark, “I hope no one would think about crossing the line in relations with Russia and we will define where this line is by ourselves in every individual case.“
So we’ve just heard it from the boss’s own lips. But what are the lines?
Here are a few events we should watch for, in my opinion:
1. US-NATO transports stationary or mobile ground-to-ground missile launchers into Ukraine.
2. UAF drones acquired from Turkey fly along the border or cross over the border of Crimean airspace.
3. US-NATO special operations sabotage the Crimean water supply.
4. Sabotage the Nord Stream 2 Gas pipeline project.
Russia is ready to swing the “shashka of persuasion” and as Putin said, it will be quick and it will be tough.
“Russia agreed to continue the transit of natural gas through the Ukraine for 13 more years until 2034”
Just a few days ago I’ve read an article, or it was a video clip about the agreement.
There is binding condition up to but not including 2025 only. Your article says that transport volume after 2024 is yet to be agreed upon = no binding agreement = no agreement.
In 2020 Russia has already transported lower volume then agreed and now with Turk stream finished and interconnection adding in Balkans it will be even lower.
With NS2 finished the transport volume will drop at most to 20bcm/year if Europe doesn’t increase its consumption.
At the same time Russia is rapidly expanding its LNG transport capacity which will further lower the need for pipe-transport. In parallel, it will allow Russia to sell its gas to whoever pays more, pipes or no pipes.
Russia has also decided to connect (currently disjoint) gas pipelines in the far east and west which will allow it to redirect piped-gas to Asian market if in need. There is a decision to expand the gas pipeline and add another connection to China, so Russia is actively working on refocusing away from the west.
Those are the events that are not reported in MSM but are there nevertheless.
That is also one of the reasons why Putin can be so calm in its address to the nation.
From the article,
“The agreement lays out plans for Russia to send a minimum of 65 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas through Ukraine’s transit system in 2020, with an additional 40 bcm each year by 2025, Šefčovič said. The agreement runs until 2034, but the later volumes have yet to be decided on.”
So my statement about the agreement being in effect until 2034 is correct.
This brings up another point that Zelensky is not taking into consideration. Russians make up 17 percent of the population of Ukraine
(see: https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/ukraine-population ).
If Zelensky remained cordial with Putin instead of stupidly acting confrontational, it’s very possible that Russia would work to extend the agreement for the sake of the Russian people who live and work in eastern Ukraine (Donbass), which is a positive outcome for Ukraine’s overall GDP.
You are missing this part: “but the later volumes have yet to be decided on”
No decision – no obligation, the agreement after 2024 doesn’t stipulate anything.
No decision – no obligation? Where did you come up with that?.
The reason that bcm amounts of gas moved in transit through Ukraine in future years was not defined in the agreement is due to spot prices of commodities fluctuate in the world financial markets, so costs per bcm are not known that far out as well as the ongoing political differences between the countries. That fact was accepted by Gazprom (Russia) and NaftoGaz (Ukraine) and does not nullify the length of the contract, which remains in force until 2034.
Are you really not understanding the content, or you are just stubborn and refuse to accept that you’ve misinterpreted the facts?
A “contract” without binding clause about the mandatory volume of gas that needs to be transported is basically just a letter of understanding whatever you call it.
But if you insist on calling it a contract, it’s fine with me.
I’m stubborn??? Perhaps you should look in a mirror.
The original article I provided clearly stated, “”It’s a very firm deal,” Šefčovič told POLITICO in an interview on Saturday. “This is a deal that’s good for Europe, Ukraine and Russia.”
Why you can’t understand that is beyond me.
Obviously you have no understanding how natural gas contracts are structured. Here is an article that explains contract terms for the sale of natural gas:
See:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/understanding-natural-gas-sales-purchase-contracts-principal-bansal
Refer to the heading, Types of Gas Contracts
“Generally, gas contracts are for a long duration, often 15-25 years. During such a long period, there will almost certainly be significant economic commercial and technological changes which have a bearing on the contracts. Therefore, gas contracts are structured and drafted in such a way that they will be able to survive such changes.”
The reference to “economic changes” addresses fluctuating spot pricing of commodities (i.e., natural gas) in the global financial markets as I wrote before.
“Gas Contracts can be divided broadly into two categories; Depletion contracts and Supply contracts. In addition, various other types of contracts are also available based on market requirement which are mainly of short duration. Although many contracts differ slightly from the norm, each category has certain basis features. Salient features of these gas contracts are given below;”
The type of natural gas that Russia is transiting through the pipelines is called “non-associated” gas, which means gas from a reservoir and not a by-product of crude oil extraction.
Here we get down to the important part, which is Seller’s Option Contracts that explains the sentence in the original article that stated, ” The agreement runs until 2034, but the later volumes have yet to be decided on.“”
Under Seller’s Option Contracts, the first bulleted item says “In advance of each Contract Year, the seller would nominate either the quantity which he would be able to sustain over that year or the quantities he would be able to sustain over Shorter periods in that year.”
So it can be seen there are open ended parts to a natural gas contract (meaning non-binding) that are a normal occurrence of these types of contracts for which the parties accept.
I hope you now understand my position.
The USA has for a long time been superb at promoting a specific image about itself – it used the skills of Madison Avenue, Hollywood and the financial and business worlds. It was a very positive image. It made many people outside the USA admire this image. I was one of them.
When you admire an image, you want to learn more about it. I read more about the history. i visited the USA. There, i ‘saw the light’ – i noted that the image did not match the reality. I was disturbed by this. I read more…and more…aiming to understand why the image did not match the reality. i opened a can of worms.
The Russia that i knew, was formed by imagery coming from the USA. Except that i did not know this, then. The imagery seemed plausible. It was the Evil Empire. I stayed away even though friends had looked behind the Iron Curtain and came back enchanted but also confused. i had my chance in 1990, with warnings in my ears that my profession would land me in prison. I met only kindness and warmth, modesty and lack of pretension. I met an East German girl but one who was West German but got stuck on the ‘wrong side’ in 1961. She helped open my eyes further. The more i experienced how people were, on the ‘other side of the Iron Curtain,’ the more i wanted to read and learn about it. i opened a box of precious jewels.
When I was young I loved America and the West…I cultivated idealistic image of America and West.
When I was 14, I spent 3 months in Germany visiting some relatives.
I was amazed.
And for long time I had idealistic view of the West
Hollywood, music, fashion … everything from the West was sacred for me.
Later I visited some other countries, Austria, Italy …
When I was 22 as a student of Mechanical Engineering in Sarajevo, I visited USSR…Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.
Yes, they were impressive even then
But life in USSR was terrible compared to Yugoslavia …not to mention comparison to the West.
I thanked dear God and Marshall Tito for keeping Yugoslavia out of the Eastern Block.
Soviet socialist system was highly UNPOPULAR in Yugoslavia then …even Serbia was no different.
Yes , as a communist country Yugoslavia was a bit closer to USSSR bit not even close to become part of Warszaw Pact.
West was incredibly attractive, but that attractiveness is fading in fast pace.
Today I am disgusted with the West and everything that West is.
And incredibly disappointed. I realized how naive and stupid I was.
And I am not alone.
You raise some excellent points. Yes the Yugoslav situation was distinct. Yes the SU was less ‘developed…’ so was Hungary and East Germany, compared to western Europe but i was never really impressed with the material side of life. All those large cars in the USA…the willy-waving skyscrapers…all looked good compared to the soot blackened buildings and the few Trabants Ladas and Volgas driving around Eastern Europe.
But i discovered that individuals behind the Iron Curtain had more soul. the mentality was more collectivist, cooperative. In the West, all i have ever experienced is good friends stabbing me in the back for their personal gain and out of jealousy and lack of respect.. The competitive culture is so deeply embedded, nobody stops to think of the morality of what they are doing.
It is then, over time, a significant fact that exactly those nations that experienced invasions of the SU – East Germany in 1953…Hungary in 1956…Czech republic in 1968…are today the most russophile (dont look at the individuals in the governments, look at the popular views). IMHO i think this is because these 3 nations (as an example) could compare both systems …and now realise in hindsight and in comparison… that the collectivist approach had greater merit.
The East Germans call this > “Ostalgie.”
Many of my Yugoslav friends say they would like a revived economic union between the ex-Yugoslav states. They hold less anger towards their Yugoslav brothers, but more bitterness towards the foreign intruder who forced change and created much havoc. What say you?
For young people, and I was young then, materialistic dimension is the most important.
And also mass culture and West rules in mass culture even today.
I do not know how much of Ostalgie exist in East Europe.
About Yugoslavia…yes some economic integration would be great thing …and the only path to salvation of those small countries in the long term …otherwise they are doomed.
Economic integration as a prelude for political integration.
But as long as this nationalism and anymosities exist there, forget about any positive development
“As I said, every now and then they are picking on Russia, for no reason. And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis are running around them like Tabaqui ran around Shere Khan – everything is like in Kipling’s book – howling along in order to make their sovereign happy. Kipling was a great writer.”(Putin)
Tabaqui was a male jackal that lived in the jungle. He fed on scraps from either Shere Khan or the wolves of the Seeonee Pack. He was unpopular with the wolves, due to his mock cordiality, and habit of sucking up to Shere Khan. … Tabaqui was later killed by one of Mowgli’s ‘siblings’, Grey Brother, who crushes his back.
Who is Shere Khan in this wonderful and thought-provoking analogy?
To understand the underlying context of Mr. President Putin’s measured words, I recommend reading the following interview with Андрей Ильницкий (Andrey Ilnitsky.Mod.), Advisor to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation:
https://zvezdaweekly.ru/news/20214211636-jxgHZ.html
Greetings.
Peio
Greetings and a big thank you Peio.
An erudite soldier with a clear mind. Forthright without a hint of arrogance. A very interesting interview, an eye-opener, but unfortunately too long to post here in entirety.
Here’s a machine translation of a few paragraphs sufficient to give a flavour of Sergey Shoigu’s military adviser:
‘Andrey Ilnitsky: “Mental War for the Future of Russia” ‘
:
:
‘Regarding the atomic war, Albert Einstein drew the following perspective: “I do not know with what weapon they will fight in the third world war, but in the fourth they will definitely fight with stones and sticks.” I am sure that serious American analysts have the same opinion, and a certain recklessness of the Americans is dictated exclusively by the geographic location of the country and the degradation of political elites. As you know, America is a large island, covered from the sides by oceans, from the north by a kindred Canada, and from the south by a peaceful Mexico. There is no one to fear.’
‘It was in such a “greenhouse” atmosphere that the American nation was formed. In addition, a generation of politicians who grew up on computer shooters and in the pictures shown by CNN have now moved to command posts in the United States: here’s a sight, here’s an explosion … Americans do not know anything more about the war. For them, war is, in a sense, an exciting journey, it is a mission to build democracy, an expedition of “goodwill”, it is something that is happening somewhere on the distant frontiers – Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya … And since Hiroshima’s nuclear weapons lie idle, and their hands are itching, the Americans periodically play the idea of using low-yield nuclear warheads with the use of high-precision weapons.’
‘I agree. The Fifth Column has a solid base in our comprador elite. A little oversimplified – in the late Soviet period, Group B goods (from Yugoslavian boots and Romanian walls to jeans and stereo tape recorders) conquered the minds of the Soviet people and destroyed the USSR. This was an example of that very mental war.’
An excellent window into RF thinking. I humbly submit it should be read by all of the Vineyard’s visitors including not a few of those trigger-happy ones, those who’ve overdosed on video games.
Thanks again.
For those who didn’t watch or listen or read the entire speech, these are the nitty gritty Putin remarks related to International Affairs”
“We really want to maintain good relations with all those engaged in international communication, including, by the way, those with whom we have not been getting along lately, to put it mildly. We really do not want to burn bridges. But if someone mistakes our good intentions for indifference or weakness and intends to burn or even blow up these bridges, they must know that Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, swift and tough.”
This last sentence drew the most approving reaction. Applause and broad, knowing smiles.
“asymmetrical, swift and tough”. The officials know Putin for 20 years, and they understand what this means.
The speech continues:
“Those behind provocations that threaten the core interests of our security will regret what they have done in a way they have not regretted anything for a long time.
“At the same time, I just have to make it clear, we have enough patience, responsibility, professionalism, self-confidence and certainty in our cause, as well as common sense, when making a decision of any kind. But I hope that no one will think about crossing the “red line” with regard to Russia. We ourselves will determine in each specific case where it will be drawn.”
This ‘red line’ remark was the big warning the neo-cons and MSM has latched onto tonight.
The speech continues with details about the current and future state of the RF military.
“I will now say, just as I always do during the annual addresses to the Federal Assembly, that the improvement and qualitative strengthening of Russia’s Armed Forces continues on a regular basis. In particular, special attention will be given to the development of military education both at military school and academies and at military training centres at civilian universities.
“By 2024, the share of modern weapons and military equipment in the armed forces will reach nearly 76 percent, which is a very good indicator. This share in the nuclear triad will be over 88 percent before this year is out.
“Standing on combat duty are the latest Avangard hypersonic intercontinental missile systems and the Peresvet combat laser systems, and the first regiment armed with Sarmat super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles is scheduled to go on combat duty in late 2022.
“The number of combat air systems with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and warships armed with precision hypersonic weapons such as Kinzhal that I mentioned, and with the Kalibr missiles, is increasing. The Tsirkon hypersonic missiles will be put on combat duty soon. Work is underway on other modern combat systems, including Poseidon and Burevestnik, in accordance with the development plans of the Armed Forces.
“As the leader in the creation of new-generation combat systems and in the development of modern nuclear forces, Russia is urging its partners once again to discuss the issues related to strategic armaments and to ensuring global stability. The subject matter and the goal of these talks could be the creation of an environment for a conflict-free coexistence based on the security equation, which would include not only the traditional strategic armaments, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, heavy bombers and submarines, but – I would like to emphasize this – all offensive and defensive systems capable of attaining strategic goals regardless of the armament.
As he indicated at the beginning of this international affairs section, Putin always refers to International Law, the UNSC, Multilateral Organizations and Diplomatic Initiatives (Negotiations).
He continues:
“The five nuclear countries bear special responsibility. I hope that the initiative on a personal meeting of the heads of state of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, which we proposed last year, will materialize and will be held as soon as the epidemiological situation allows.
“Russia is always open to broad international cooperation. We have consistently advocated the preservation and strengthening of the key role of the United Nations in international affairs, and we try to provide assistance to the settlement of regional conflicts and have already done a great deal to stabilize the situation in Syria and to launch a political dialogue in Libya. As you know, Russia played the main role in stopping the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“It is on the basis of mutual respect that we are building relations with the absolute majority of the world’s countries: in Asia, Latin America, Africa and many European countries. We are consistently expanding as a priority contacts with our closest partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and our allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
“Our common projects in the Eurasian Economic Union are aimed at ensuring economic growth and the wellbeing of our people. There are new, interesting projects here, such as the development of transport-and-logistics corridors. I am sure they will become a reliable infrastructure backbone for large-scale Eurasian partnership. The Russian ideas of this broad, open association are already being put into practice, in part, via alignment with other integration processes.
“All these projects are not just geopolitical ideas but strictly practical instruments for resolving national development tasks.”
President Putin, as he always has, offers established international laws, ways and means to arrange international affairs and resolve global issues. In any case where another nation tries to violate Russia’s rights and interests, he is prepared to use military force to assure those rights and interests.
He also is prepared to use asymmetrical means to protect Russia, Russian people and all the interests of the Russian state.
The West has its warning. April 21, 2021.
Peskov added this clarification of the “red lines”:
“As for the red lines, they are obvious,” Peskov said. – First of all, these are our national interests, the interests of our external security, the interests of our internal security and the prevention of interference by someone from outside in our elections or other political processes. This is the prevention of insulting conversation with our country, this is the prevention of infringement of the economic interests of our country, and so on,” the Kremlin representative said.
Respectfully to Peskov, many of us are not so sure about what is a red line. Would a coup in Belarus go too far? A coup in Kiev wasn’t. Would de facto but not de jure membership in NATO cross the line?
Perhaps those things are explained to Merkel or whoever in private, but it seems that the attempted coup and destabilization in Belarus did not go too far.
The issue is that many or even most observers in the US can see Moscow’s policy as stalling for time, not one with actual red lines – other than missiles flying towards Moscow. So, as long as they avoid that, the West can keep attacking on all fronts – but they might fail to get the desired result.
There may also be a difference of opinion about past events. The 2008 Georgian affair may have been a victory as far as DC is concerned. It hardened the anti-Russian position within Georgian society and made it harder to work out win-win deals. Embarrassing the political leadership doesn’t matter to DC as they like clowns for their puppets, and they can always find a new clown.
Hi Saker,
I’m no analyst like you and others here, but I visit to read or post what I find relevant to your threads if you or others would like to pick them apart.
This was written before the speech. I don’t subscribe to all that the authors assumed and posited, though I think they’d be disappointed now that VVP didn’t deliver a deescalation roadmap they hoped for. Of particular relevance is their discussion that cutting RF from SWIFT is pretty much cutting one’s nose to spite the enemy:
“Indeed, with Russia being such a large exporter of key commodities, it seems hard to imagine that the US could act against it via SWIFT without sanctioning all those who buy from it too, especially China.
Moreover, in the event this kind of policy were seen, Russia might shift to selling in cryptocurrency, or even the new digital CNY (despite PBOC protestations to the contrary).”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russia-ukraine-tension-current-stand-and-potential-impact
And bingo, right on queue, one Tabaqui took the bait, so I’m waiting to see if this escalates and what does RF hold in store as promised painful consequence. See second paragraph below:
“Ukraine has asked the United States to provide it with “powerful means of electronic warfare” to counter Russia’s capacity to breach Ukrainian communications, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Reuters.
Kiev also called on foreign ministers of the EU countries to consider “banning Russia from SWIFT” as part of new sanctions against Moscow in case of a further escalation of tensions in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas.”
https://t.me/sputniknewsint/6845
And the other Tabaqui yapping, and again I await how RF will retaliate tomorrow:
“All expelled employees of the Czech Embassy must be brought back to their positions ni Moscow. We will wait for [Moscow’s] decision until 12:00 [local time] Thursday. Should this decision not be made, we will initiate the option of achievement of parity of the number of [embassy] employees,” Kulhanek said.
https://tass.com/world/1281335
“Those behind provocations that threaten the core interests of our security will regret what they have done in a way they have not regretted anything for a long time.”
hope they are listening.
Much has been written on this site and others, that the collective West has been provided with a distorted image of Russia…and this website in particular, does a fine work in explaining what Russia is truly about.
Lets do a bit of lateral thinking here: i think what people do misunderstand about “Russophobia” is that this has greatly helped everyone to be made more aware of Russia. Even when western media tries to ‘bury’ some part of events by omission or by distortion, the public has been made to be aware of Russia. Not all are so totally preoccupied with their banal everyday lives, that they have no time to think. They do discuss issues. They do ask, what on earth is going on?
The more the media creates negative (and sometimes positive) narratives about Russia, the more intrigued people are in the collective west… They have a basis for comparison: they can listen to what the Western MSM says…and compare it with what they get to understand from internet media.
Russia is now SO much discussed in the home, the kids in particular are challenging the preconceived / brainwashed opinions of their parents. I know of younger generation that wanted to visit Russia and learn the language, where the parents were totally negative about Russia. I know of young men who got to know a Russian girl and brought her into the West and she by her presence and attitude alone, charmed reluctant parents into understanding that she is not an ogre. In fact, there is more to Russia than meets the prejudiced / brainwashed eye.
I am optimistic that the younger generation of Americans and British will change the parameters that exist today. Meanwhile Russia speaks more softly but shows more clearly the big stick she is carrying. The image of weakness – which the current psychopaths who are running (ruining) the collective west believe is the reality – can clearly not be misunderstood any longer.
The problem is that so many of us look for conflict as entertainment, a Russian counterattack against Ukraine would had us all enthralled and had us posting for weeks. A bloody nose to the evil west etc.
Putin however, just goes about business, and seems to get involved militarily as little as possible. In the end wars aside from the horror and deaths, wreck economies. Ukraine may remain a festering sore but it seems Russia finds that more tolerable than war.
Good speech. If I were Russian, I think I would be proud to be so. I thought the focus on Family and children was well placed. Russia has a future and something to protect. What kind of a future does a country of hyenas ran by LBGTQ++++ transgenders have?
Putin always seems a bit laconic to me. You have to be aware of what he didn’t say. Seems to be inspired by Lycurgus to me.
Some people hope that Lukasenko will declare entering of Blelarus into Russian Federation.
I do not think so. At least not now
It is too early and I think that Putin will not do that even if Lukasenko wants it which I also doubt.
I do not trust him at all.
We saw several months ago that a significant part of Belarus society is hostile toward Russia, that they are Western- obsessed…brainwashed
Especially huge part of Belarussian young generation is brainwashed by the West
Russia does need such a problem. Not now.
To achieve unification smoothly and without problems in Belarus Russia have to be more attractive, to strongly rise life standard and incomes, to eliminate powerty …to become a sort of paradise.
And then Belarus and even Ukraine will run toward Russia.
I know human psihology .
Russia till 2030 have at least to double incomes of its citizens …Russia GDP growth is still NOT GOOD.
Look at China, GDP growth in the first quarter of 2021 was 18.3%.
Russia needs annual growth no less than 4%. Russia needs to end economic stagnation that last for too long time. Russia needs to end dependency on commodities like oil and gas, to product and export goods of high added value.
Putin and Mishustin know this and that is why they have started all these reforms of economy, infustry and manufacturing …and those reforms are right strategy
Russia is on half way … a lot , lot, a lot still have to be done so Russia to become what it has to become.
Russia is crucially important to all world. More than China.
Concept of multi polar world is only salvation for small countries and nations to survive
Although many of them are probably even not aware of this fact.
MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that Minsk and Moscow have managed to agree 26-27 roadmaps on integration at the government level, there are 2-3 serious programs left including taxation. “We are actively moving forward in union programs. Remember, we started with the maps [integration roadmaps], very serious programs. We have probably already agreed 26 or 27 at the government level. A few are left, 2 or 3 serious programs of economic nature, including taxation, a well-known program which we have already made a decision on in Minsk,” he said Thursday during his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
There has been a tendency among a section of the readers (of The Saker website, and couple of other websites with anti-hegemon agenda) to criticise President Putin and FM Lavrov at every occasion of statecraft. A group of people (may I call them ‘armchair revolutionaries’) expect that Putin and Lavrov would breathe fire and throw missiles instead of delivering lectures and engage in discussions.
I couldn’t understand why many among us are feeling as if they have been robbed off their most precious items. Is it not enough that Putin, in clear unambiguous tone, told that there would be “asymmetrical, swift, harsh” response to any instance of crossing a redline? If President Biden proved that the USA and the 5-Eye countries have become ‘post-civilization’ ‘post-truth’ societies, must President Putin do the same (by trading insults and calling names)?
In fact, I’m surprised that Putin gave the exact figures on what percentage of military machines have been modernised in Russia!
What probably made the ‘Russian patriots’ and ‘international revolutionaries’ unhappy is that there was no clue in Putin’s address about the future roadmap of ‘Novorossia’. Well, if I were there, I wouldn’t like to put all my cards on the table. So, why should Russian government give even a clue on it??
Finally, I have an observation. I didn’t find a clue on the future political economy of Russia and Eurasian Economic Union. With due respect to the country’s leadership, and the ideologue of the key political parties as well as the activists across a few alternative media forums, I must state that unless a clear categorical ideology of political economy is followed, the accumulation of wealth by 1% will continue unabated, and any mighty leader (like Putin) would remain hostage to the interests of the owners of the factors of production (and distribution) in the society. Even more significant point is that, the 1% group will ALWAYS remain faithful to ONLY their interest, and after 5 – 7 years even a sincere patriotic leader like Putin may find that the existing democracy has been replaced with a new (facade of) ‘progressive democracy’ created by the zionist capitalist deep state…
@Straight-Bat
“There has been a tendency among a section of the readers /…/ to criticise President Putin and FM Lavrov at every occasion of statecraft. A group of people /…/ expect that Putin and Lavrov would breathe fire and throw missiles instead of delivering lectures and engage in discussions.”
Exactly, and what I find particularly outrageous about this lot is not the never-ending, totally baseless and clueless second-guessing which, by itself, is quite entertaining as it flies right in the face of plain reality. No, what’s truly ugly about it are the tacit, yet obvious, assumptions at work:
a) To hell with Russian public opinion
b) To hell with Russia’s top class achievements
c) To hell with Russia’s top class leadership
This is how ’armchair revolutionaries’ forever find common ground with imperialist/fascist reaction when it comes to countries, peoples, and leaders that need to be cowed. Sadly, however, Russia and China seem totally unimpressed by Western ideological horseshit these days.
Nussiminen,
I can’t agree more.
What I’m confused is whether these ‘armchair revolutionaries’ are unable to comprehend the geopolitical and geo-economic situation and context (due to lack of overall understanding) OR they are simply a part of the ‘controlled opposition’. I’m inclined to opt for the former. But i may be wrong in assuming so.
Russia, as one of the leader of the ‘Resistance camp’ as well as the prime motive force of military technology (on behalf of the Resistance camp) can’t afford to take any hasty action that may jeopardize the whole resistance movement. Russia must resist the attempt of the zionist capitalist Deep State to colonise Novorossia, and assist the Donbas people to build Novororrian force. But, Russia CAN’T launch attacks on Ukrainian military on its own as an ‘aggressor’ something which the ‘armchair revolutionaries’ crave for.
Straight-Bat,
Actually, I feel disposed to believe that this kind of gentry feels unhappy — consciously so or not — about imperialist setbacks and defeats. They will, be instinctively hostile towards any resistance with something to show for it. Another expression of this 100% reactionary mindset is their defeatism caused even by silly, pathetic stunts like Navalny’s and Tikhanovskaya’s.
Nussiminen,
I feel disposed to believe that this kind of gentry feels unhappy – consciously so or not – about imperialist setbacks and defeats. They will, be instinctively hostile towards any resistance with something to show for it.
You opened Pandora’s box … An unforgettable revolutionary who consciously felt happy about imperialist gains was Lev Bronstein – he even romanticized the pain of a Russian soldier in captivity of a German Army which would (soon) invade Russia. (I forgot the name of that book by Trotsky)…
Simply brilliant direct leadership. Measured response to the pain-in-the-ass West. Wisely not wasting words in stating any more than necessary: “You have been warned. The consequences of provocation past a certain point will bring upon you a world of hurt.”
So. It has been said, “and that is all the warning I shall give you. I am a busy man, do not further waste my time. You WILL not further waste my time nor that of my nation’s people.”
Vladimir Putin knows well the meaning of ‘walking the talk.’
All these big World Leaders — Putin, the Pope, the Dalai Lama — make obeisance to the imaginary global Plandemic Covid-19 by a non-existenc or hardly-existent virus against which medical science cannot produce a classical vaccine because scientists have not been able to produce the actual virus. They are afraid they will lose their dignity.
It is left to the little guys in Tanzania and Belarus to take the flak.
An explanation of Shere Khan and Tabaki – this was retweeted by the Russian envoy to the UN – Dmitry Polyanskiy
“Shere Khan and Tabaki in Russia are mostly seen through these characters from the famous ‘Adventures of Mowgly’ 1973 Soviet animated film. ”
https://twitter.com/A__Alimov/status/1385102701889994753
President Putin speak from asymmetrical response. Interesting development in Chad (see below). Could this be one of his asymmetrical responses?
https://strategika51.org/2021/04/22/tchad-les-colonnes-rebelles-jurent-de-marcher-sur-la-capitale/
Chad: Rebel columns vow to march on capital
New 4×4 vehicles and weapons from Libya and elsewhere, who is supporting the northern Toubou rebels?
They have just rejected the appointment of Deby Itno’s son and his Zghawa warrior clan, saying Chad is not a monarchy. Other rebel groups in the east and south are tempted to take up arms.
There are persistent rumours that Marshal Khelifa Haftar is supporting the Chadian rebels in the north, whom he knows particularly well since he was one of the Libyan generals who fought in Chad’s war against France in the 1980s.
In any case, the country will be the prey of violent fighting in the days to come.
The African Union seems to be completely out of step with what is happening in the Sahel and in East Africa. The outdated and backward-looking role of this pan-African organization has turned it into a kind of Arab League bis, which has been clinically dead for decades.
The multiple Chadian rebellions are jeopardizing not only the power of the Zghawa in Chad but also the French central military apparatus and the whole of France’s costly war effort in the Sahel.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
PS: Rwandan have fought with Russian in République Centre Africaine, so far with success.
PS nr 2: If the rebel seize N’Djaména it will destroy OPEX Bahrkane. A devastating blow. I pray for it.
I think Putin mentioned Kipling because of the colonial attitude of the powers antagonising Russia and so many other countries
Kipling is also well known for:
“Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain.
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:—
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Have done with childish days—
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!”
Tabaki was a jackal or hyena(?). Somebody on this site quoted Churchill saying that Poland is the hyena of Europe. I’m sure the reference was not lost on the people it was intended for.