Feb 21: I sat through Putin's speech
Max Seddon's thread published Feb 21, 2023, comments and posts
I sat through Putin’s speech…
Confession: I don’t know Russian. Sure, a few words here and there linked to my area of research but that’s where it stops. I sat through the one hour and 45 minute speech with a simultaneous translation, and occasionally popped over to Max Seddon’s Twitter feed for his translations and comments. His feed also featured pictures of the audience, which were different from those coming from the broadcast on the Tass Telegram channel so I’ve included his thread here.
What did I get out of it? Blame the West for the war…bla bla bla…we are Nazis…Poland, Austria and Hungary were stolen from Russia…bla bla bla…everyone in Russia is patriotic and let’s include the citizens of the occupied territories…bla bla bla…we bring them water…(he forgot to mention the missile attacks)…we’re going to make Russia great again and we have lots of cash to do so…(see Nabullina’s face on that one)…oligarchs took their money to the West and we want it back…they are attacking us so we must defend the fatherland…bla bla bla…and then the nuclear START thing and nuclear testing.
Oh, I forgot to mention the cultural centres across Russia that will educate children in the art of war through state propaganda. They will grow up happy because they will be contributing to the fatherland, of course rejoice in the sacred traditional man-woman marriage, and make lots of babies to send to the cultural centres.
So to sum up, Russia is doing immensely well economically, and ready to embark on a historic infrastructure, cultural and social programme. They’re also going to manufacture all the armaments necessary to fight the war against (flips through notes) us, and all the oligarchs abroad better look over their shoulder and put the tea cup down because they are next in line for a one-way ticket to hell.
Max Seddon’s thread on Putin’s speech
Psss…he’s much more serious than I am, so read through…
Putin says it's the west's fault he invaded Ukraine, because the US and Europe spent years supporting Kyiv.
"Western elites have become a symbol of total, unprincipled lies to their own people," he says.
"They're the ones who started the war. We are using force to stop it."
"The longer-range the weaponry the west supplies to Kyiv, the further we will be forced to drive that weaponry away from our borders," Putin says.
This isn't much different from Putin's usual rants against the west. Less than 20 minutes in and we're already onto gay marriage.
"The west is proposing the idea of a gender-neutral God. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do."
Putin suggests he's not going to ramp up repressions against dissent any further.
"We're never going to be like the Kyiv regime's witch-hunts," he says. "We are all proud that our multiethnic people has taken a principled position to support the [war] and shown true patriotism."
Multiple rounds of applause for everyone involved in the invasion, from soldiers and intelligence officers to army chaplains and military bloggers.
Putin vows Russia will do everything to rebuild the lands it conquered and annexed (where it razed entire cities to the ground).
A moment of silence for soldiers civilians killed in the war "by neo-Nazi death squads."
A brief digression about nuclear weapons. Putin says Russia's deterrence force is 91.3% equipped with "the newest weapons" and demands the entire armed forces reach that level across the board.
Putin says sanctions have sparked price rises and inflation in the west, which he says the US and EU are unfairly trying to blame on Russia.
"The real purpose is to make our people suffer and destabilize the country from within, but their calculations didn't bear out."
Actually, Putin says, the Russian economy is doing just great. We get a favorite Putin speech line – a round of applause for last year's grain harvest.
Central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina, who privately opposes the war but has not said so in public, does not look thrilled.
Nor does Igor Shuvalov, one of the few Russian technocrats who supports the war.
Finance minister Anton Siluanov
We're still on the economy. Most of the second half of the speech could have been the same if there weren't a war on.
Some of it is actually lines from earlier addresses: a call for Russian business to "deoffshorize" (2013) and to wind down economic prosecutions (2019, 2021). A dig at Russia's oligarchs.
"No ordinary citizens felt sorry for those who lost their foreign assets and invested in yachts and palaces," Putin says. "You'll get sick of eating dust running around western courts" trying to get the sanctions overturned.
"Some people want to live out their days in a foreign mansion with their blocked accounts," Putin says. "But for the west those people are alien. Buying counts' titles won't help. They are second-class citizens. You have another choice: to be with your country."
Putin says there's going to be an election as scheduled last year. He doesn't say if he'll run. But he makes it pretty clear the election is about affirming popular support for Russia's policies, not allowing political competition.
Quoting Tsarist official Pyotr Stolypin (another Putin bingo square): "In the cause of defending Russia we must all unify and coordinate our efforts, rights, and responsibilities to support Russia's one historical, higher right – the right to be strong."
Quite something to show up to Putin's speech in matching orange hoodies
Maxim Oreshkin, Putin's economic advisor, stares at the floor.
Putin says Russia is suspending its participation from the New Start treaty, the only remaining arms control agreement it has with the US.
"Our relations have degraded and that's completely and utterly the US's fault," Putin said.
Putin says Russia should be ready to conduct nuclear tests, but only if the US does it first.
"If the US conducts tests, then so will we. Nobody should have any illusions that global strategic parity can be destroyed."
That nuclear mic drop is the closing point of Putin's speech. "Russia will answer any challenges, because we are one people."
A standing ovation, and the national anthem plays. Some in the audience sing along, others stare ahead into the distance.
Further reading and comments…
Staff, ‘The West is playing with marked cards’ Putin’s Federal Assembly address in a nutshell- Meduza
Putin's two-hour speech before the Federal Assembly boils down to this: We live in watershed times. The West has started the war and now plays with a marked deck. If the US conducts nuclear testing, Russia will do it, too.
If you prefer, Reuters also provides a summary: “Putin delivers nuclear warning to the West over Ukraine”, by Guy Faulconbridge, Vladimir Soldatkin.
They’ve highlighted this key passage:
The west and would-be Nato member Ukraine reject that narrative, and say Nato expansion eastwards since the end of the cold war is no justification for what they say is an imperial-style land grab doomed to failure.
“The people of Ukraine have become the hostage of the Kyiv regime and its western overlords, who have effectively occupied this country in the political, military and economic sense,” Putin said.
“They intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation. This is exactly how we understand it all, and we will react accordingly, because in this case we are talking about the existence of our country.”
Defeating Russia, he said, was impossible.
Russia would never yield to western attempts to divide its society, said the 70-year-old Kremlin chief, adding that a majority of Russians support the war.
Referring to the sham referendums held late last year, Putin praised the citizens of occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, saying “You yourself determined your future. You made your choice despite the threats of terror of the Nazis. Next to you there were military actions taking place, and you made the choice to be together with Russia. To be together with your motherland.” He’s completely delusional.
Putin claimed the Ukrainian people had become “hostages of their western masters” who occupied the country in political, economic and military terms. He said “the regime is not serving their national interest. They are serving the interests of foreign powers”. He claimed the west is trying to turn a local conflict into a global conflict and “we will react in an appropriate way. We are talking about the existence of our country.” This one will resound with Kremlin aligned proxies and propagandists in the West.
Fun fact: Russian state media websites broadcasting Putin’s address suffered an outage during his speech. The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said the outage was the result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
Ukrainian responses to the speech were scathing. “He is in a completely different reality, where there is no opportunity to conduct a dialogue about justice and international law,” political adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.
