Vladimir Putin said Thursday, during his annual televised question-and-answer session, that he was ready to meet “at any time” with US President-elect Donald Trump, who recently called for a truce and negotiations between the Ukraine and Russia.
“I am ready to do it, of course. At any time,” said the Russian president, saying he had not spoken with Mr. Trump “for more than four years.”
This long live conference, although carefully staged, constitutes one of the rare opportunities to ask sensitive questions of the Russian president for the country’s journalists and citizens.
The show, which this year lasted nearly 4:30 hours and concluded around 2:40 p.m. Swiss, took place one month before the return to the White House of the unpredictable Donald Trump.
The Republican, already president from 2017 to 2021, has repeatedly promised to bring peace to Ukraine “in 24 hours” and called for an “immediate ceasefire” as well as talks.
But the vagueness surrounding his plan arouses concern in Ukraine.
“If we ever meet President-elect Trump, I am sure we will have a lot to say to each other,” Vladimir Putin said.
Progress in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin assured that Russia was ready for a “dialogue” with Ukraine, but only on the basis of “ground realities”, a way of saying that his country would not return the conquered territories.
He rejected any truce, which would allow the Ukrainian army to “take a break” and rearm.
His Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, responded on Thursday that Vladimir Putin was just an “old dreamer”, reacting to his conference. “He lives in another world. In his own aquarium,” he said during a trip to Brussels.
Volodymyr Zelensky, long firmly opposed to talks, recently qualified his position but asks the West for solid security guarantees.
Vladimir Putin showed his confidence in him on Thursday, estimating that the situation was “changing radically” on the front in Ukraine, where his troops are progressing at an unprecedented pace since the first months of 2022.
President Putin, on the other hand, admitted that he did not know when his army would manage to drive Ukrainian forces out of the Russian region of Kursk, where they still occupy several hundred square kilometers despite attempts by Russian troops, supported according to kyiv by North-North soldiers. Koreans, to dislodge them.
“We will absolutely defeat them,” the Russian president nevertheless assured.
This offensive, the largest on Russian territory since the Second World War, is a source of embarrassment for the Kremlin, which wants to persuade that the conflict in Ukraine has no impact on the daily lives of Russians.
If he had to do it again, Vladimir Putin would have launched his offensive against his neighbor “earlier”, he assured, implying that Russia should have prepared better.
“Duel” with the West
Vladimir Putin also praised his new “Orechnik” missile, a “modern weapon” which can carry a nuclear charge and strike thousands of kilometers away.
The Russian military first used it on November 21 against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, presenting it as a response to recent Ukrainian strikes against Russian soil using American and British missiles.
The Russian president has since threatened to strike kyiv, and even directly the Western countries which arm Ukraine.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin proposed to the West a “high-tech duel of the 21st century” between the Russian Orechnik and their anti-aircraft defense assets.
“Let them determine a target. Let’s say: kyiv,” he said. “We’ll throw a strike there, and see what happens.”
Syria, not a “defeat”
Another important international subject, Mr. Putin assured that the fall in Syria of Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Moscow, was not a “defeat” for Russia, which avoided the creation of an “enclave terrorist”.
The fate of the two Russian military bases in Syria, crucial for Russian operations in the Mediterranean, is however up in the air.
Vladimir Putin said he had not yet seen Bashar al-Assad, who found refuge in Russia with his family, but that he “intends” to speak with him.
He also called on Israel to withdraw its troops from “Syrian territory”, which had been deployed in a UN-controlled buffer zone separating the two countries on the Golan Heights.
Domestically, the Russian leader criticized his special services, which were unable to prevent the assassination on Tuesday of Russian general Igor Kirillov, killed Tuesday in an explosion in Moscow claimed by kyiv.
“We must not allow such flaws,” he insisted.
The leader also admitted that galloping inflation in Russia, at 8.9% in November according to official figures, was a “worrying signal”.
The Russian economy, after having resisted over the last three years, is showing signs of running out of steam, notably with a surge in interest rates which is handicapping businesses, the weakening of the ruble, and a gloomy outlook for 2025.
The economic situation is “stable”, however, Vladimir Putin tried to convince in this show watched by millions of Russians.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
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