Kremlin: Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his long-delayed State-of-the-Nation speech on Tuesday — a speech that many expected would set the tone for the year ahead and highlight how How the Kremlin views its worn-out war in Ukraine. During his speech, the Russian president accused the West of “complicating things” for Moscow at a time when it was ready to negotiate a peaceful way to end the bloody military conflict with Ukraine.
Russia’s president also vowed to press “systematically” with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as he delivered his state of the nation speech. “Step by step, we will carefully and methodically solve the goals that are before us,” Putin said ahead of the first anniversary of the military intervention.
We were making every effort to resolve this problem peacefully, negotiating this difficult conflict peacefully, but a very different scenario was being prepared behind our backs: Russian President Vladimir Putin pic.twitter.com/ZY8p1nEf84– ANI (@ANI) February 21, 2023
Putin blames West for rising tensions in Ukraine
He also said that the West was “solely responsible” for the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. Putin alleged that Western countries tried to turn the Ukraine conflict into a global confrontation with Russia and that Moscow’s survival was at stake. “They intend to turn a local conflict into a global confrontation, we understand it as such and will react accordingly,” Putin told lawmakers.
His speech came a day after US President Joe Biden’s secret visit to Ukraine. Putin began his speech by saying that he would be speaking “during a complex and frontier time for our country, at a time of enormous changes in our world.”
Last year, Putin never gave an address to the nation as his troops swept into Ukraine and suffered repeated setbacks. Now, the address comes days before the first anniversary of the battle on Friday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the Russian leader would focus on a “special military operation” in Ukraine, as Moscow calls it, and Russia’s economy and social issues. Many observers had also expected the speech to address Moscow’s falling out with the West.
unfriendly media forbidden form coverage
The Kremlin has this year banned media from “unfriendly” countries, the list of which includes those from the US, the UK and the European Union. Peskov said journalists from those countries would be able to cover the speech by watching the broadcast.
The Russian President has postponed the State of the Nation address before: in 2017, the speech was rescheduled for early 2018. Last year, the Kremlin also canceled two other big annual events – Putin’s press conferences and a highly scripted phone-in marathon where people ask the president questions.