Like every year, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in a question-and-answer session on television. On Thursday, he was asked about the poor health of the Russian economy, setbacks in Syria and the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
This long live question-and-answer session from journalists or Russian citizens, although carefully staged, constitutes one of the rare opportunities to ask delicate questions of the Russian president. This is how more than a million and a half questions were submitted to him, according to a count reported by the Ria Novosti agency.
Security protocols in question
Vladimir Putin admitted Thursday that his special services had failed to prevent the assassination on Tuesday of Russian general Igor Kirillov, killed in an explosion in Moscow claimed by kyiv. “This means that our intelligence services are allowing these attacks to go through,” he admitted. “We just have to improve this work, we must not allow such flaws.”
General Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday in the southeast of Moscow, in an explosion claimed by the Ukrainian secret services (SBU), a modus operandi described Thursday by Vladimir Putin as “terrorist”.
His death in the heart of Moscow raises questions about the security protocols surrounding Russian leaders and important figures in the country, while the Russian capital has been heavily protected for three years.
General Kirillov, sanctioned in October by London for the alleged deployment of chemical weapons in Ukraine, is the most senior Russian military official known to have been killed since the start of the Russian offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022.
A suspect – an Uzbek citizen born in 1995 – was arrested, the Russian Investigative Committee announced on Wednesday.
Soon a meeting with Donald Trump?
The Russian leader further said he should have launched an attack on Ukraine earlier, saying Russia was “deceived” and “forced” to launch its offensive. “If it were possible to go back in time, knowing what is happening today, I would have considered deciding to launch a special operation (in Ukraine) earlier.”
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Vladimir Putin also said he was ready to meet “at any time” with US President-elect Donald Trump, who recently called for a ceasefire and negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
As for the war in the Middle East, the Russian hopes “that Israel will withdraw from Syrian territory at some point.”
>> Reread: Donald Trump calls for “immediate” ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia
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