Putin's general settlement with the West

“The Russian President has again raised allegations against Kiev and the West. They want to destroy Russia "from within" and are constantly lying. 

 

Vladimir Putin's big press conference is a fixed date in the Russian President's annual plan. For the 17th time, Putin responded to questions from selected media representatives on Thursday. Hundreds of them were gathered in an event center at the Kremlin; three negative PCR tests were compulsory.

 

On none of the numerous topics did Putin speak as furiously as when he looked at Ukraine and the West, in line with the concerns there, that Russia's troops concentrated on the border and in the  Ukrainian Crimea could attack. Reports of Russian maneuvers are piling up. According to the Ministry of Defense, more than 1200 paratroopers are practicing “the rapid conquest of an area” in the Crimea and the southern Russian region of Krasnodar.

 

Putin focused on the “security guarantees” demanded by Moscow, for which draft treaties were presented to the United States and NATO last week. Among other things, they provide for the abandonment of any future expansion and any activities of the alliance in the post-Soviet space, as well as a buffer zone.

Talks with Washington in early January

 

Putin said, however, that there has been “an overall positive reaction” to the proposals and announced that first talks between representatives of Russia and America should take place in Geneva in early January. American President Joe Biden Putin promised negotiations on December 7th on a video link in order to defuse tensions in Ukraine. Russia's president is now keen to keep up the pressure on opponents in Kiev and in the West.

 

"They tell us: war, war, war," Putin said of his Western counterparts. The impression arises that Kiev is possibly planning a new “military operation” against the pro-Russian “People's Republics” in Donbass “and we are warned in advance: Don't interfere, do not protect these people, and if you interfere and protect them, some way will come new sanctions.” But Russia must respond to appropriate actions.

Putin speculates on Ukrainian military operation

 

The government in Kiev is called by Putin a “regime” and he accused President Volodymyr Zelenskyi of being under the influence of “radical elements”. Ukrainian forces who wanted to work towards "good neighborly relations" with Russia have been "destroyed". Zelenskyj has long sought a meeting with Putin on Donbass, but the Kremlin refuses. In addition, since the democratically elected president took office in 2019, Russia has naturalized hundreds of thousands of residents of the "People's Republics".

 

Andrei Kortunow of the Russian Council for International Affairs, a government-affiliated think tank, sees the Kremlin's concerns about the “changed potential” of the Ukrainian army behind the complaints about an impending Ukrainian “military offensive”. This has become much stronger compared to the time of the fights in 2014 and 2015, says Kortunow of the F.A.Z. and points to the delivery of the American Javelin anti-tank missiles, which President Barack Obama had waived seven years ago, but which took place under his successor Donald Trump, as well as the purchase and use of Turkish drones. Kortunov believes Russian intervention in Donbass is conceivable if the leaderships of the “People's Republics” should come into serious trouble.

 

However, the Russian side is currently also citing scenarios for Ukrainian “provocations”, some with American participation, which is fueling fears that Moscow could construct a pretext for intervention. Putin now endeavored to turn the western audience - represented by journalists - against the neighboring country. 

 

He gave Ukraine, which no longer sources gas for its own use directly from Russia, to be partly to blame for the current gas prices: He had "every reason to assume" that gas from Germany is delivered to Ukraine via Poland, which caused prices to reach record highs.

 

Putin sees enemies everywhere

 

But Ukraine only offered Putin the fixed point for a new general settlement with the West. For centuries, “our opponents” have said: “You cannot defeat Russia, you can only bring it down from within.” Putin complained that this happened at the end of the First World War and in the 1990s. He accused the West of having destroyed the Soviet Union “from within” and later supporting “terrorists in the North Caucasus”. In a current state television film, Putin describes the end of the Soviet Union and the numerous non-Russian belonged as the "falling apart of historical Russia" and complains: "That which has been worked out over the course of 1000 years has been lost to a significant extent."

 

By repulsing alleged attempts to dismantle Russia “from within”, Putin declared the persecution of political opponents, “foreign agents” and “extremists”. Those affected served "foreign interests". Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia was “too big” for the “partners” who themselves had lost their empires, said Putin. He also complained that Russia's official population of 146 million (including Crimea) is too small from a “geopolitical point of view”.

 

Putin angrily repeated the statement that the West had promised Russia that NATO would not expand.  "They cheated on us," said Putin, "just mean cheated." He referred to NATO expansions and missile defense systems in Romania and Poland. “That's what it's about, it's not us who threaten anyone. Now they are still saying that Ukraine will be in NATO,” - continued Putin, referring to a promise of admission made to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008, which, out of consideration for Russia, will not be kept. “Or that there, God help you, there will be bases and launch systems on a bilateral basis, not within NATO.” Putin had previously described this prospect as a “red line”. A modern, armed “anti-Russia” should be established in Ukraine, Putin claimed and vehemently demanded written security guarantees.

 

Russia's state television is trying to back up Putin's military-diplomatic advance. The moderator Dmitrij Kisselev recently warned that if Ukraine ever joins NATO or if the alliance takes Ukrainian territory "militarily, we will put a gun to America's temple". We have the military capabilities to do it: supersonic weapons. "They are reaching America as fast as American or British weapons could reach Moscow from Ukraine." Kisselev said it would be like a repeat of the Cuba crisis of 1962, when a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union over medium-range missiles being stationed on the Caribbean island threatened "only with a shorter flight time for the missiles"."