In a state television documentary relayed by CNN, Vladimir Putin claims to want to conduct war in Ukraine “until the end”, while hoping not to use nuclear weapons. An offensive posture in the face of a West that he continues to accuse provocation.
In a film broadcast by state television, entitled “Russia, Kremlin, Putin, 25 years old”retracing the quarter of a century of Putin as a supreme leader of Russia, the Russian president said that he hoped not to have to resort to nuclear weapons. “They wanted to provoke us for us to make mistakes,” said Putin, speaking alongside a portrait of Tsar Alexander III, known for his repression of opponents. “It was not necessary to use these weapons … and I hope they will not be necessary,” he adds. “We have enough strength and means to make a logical end what was started in 2022, with the result that Russia requires. Former CIA director William Burns said there was a real risk in late 2022 that Russia used nuclear weapons against Ukraine – an assertion rejected by Moscow.
“A blood bath”
Putin’s intervention relayed by CNN occurs in a context where the war seems to be bogged down, despite massive human losses – several hundred thousand soldiers killed or injured according to Western estimates – and while international pressures are intensifying. Donald Trump has been hammering his desire to put an end to what he describes as a “bloodbath”, presented by his camp as a proxy war between Washington and Moscow for weeks, for weeks.
Faced with a Ukraine supported militarily by the West and a frozen front, Putin presents this conflict as a historical turning point in relations between Russia and the Western powers. He accuses the latter of having humiliated Moscow since the fall of the Berlin Wall, in particular by the enlargement of NATO at the Russian borders. In his eyes, the invasion is a response to this geopolitical pressure, more than just a military operation.
A rare overview of Putin’s privacy
In this carefully scripted film of state television, which offers a rare overview of the Russian president’s privacy, we see Putin in particular offering chocolates and a Russian fermented Milky Drink to journalist Pavel Zaroubine in Kremlin’s private cuisine, reports CNN. Putin said he had prayed on his knees for the first time during the Nord-Ost theater crisis in Moscow in 2002, when Chechen activists had taken over 900 people hostage. Over 130 hostages had been killed. “I do not consider myself a politician,” said Putin about his 25th anniversary at the head of the State as president and Prime Minister. “I continue to breathe the same air as millions of Russian citizens. It is very important. May God make it last for as long as possible. And that it does not disappear. »»
In filigree, it is also Putin’s personal assessment that this documentary traces: that of a strong man, always popular-more than 85 % of favorable opinions according to the Russian institutes-who intends to remain close to the Russian people by positioning themselves as the bulwark against the chaos of the post-Sovietism. A careful staging, but revealing a closed, centralized Russia and more than ever turned towards a prolonged confrontation with the West.
