From Ukraine to Syria, passing through relations with Trump: Russian President Putin takes stock of the situation in Russia and not in the end-of-year conference
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It’s a Vladimir Putin across the board the one who attended the end-of-year press conference in Moscow organized on Thursday morning, associated for the occasion with the usual format of questions from Russian citizens and the president’s answers. Four and a half hours into the event broadcast live on TV and radio where the Kremlin leader responded to 76 questions, of which 14 on the topic of war. Questions came from 33 media representatives, including bloggers and moderators, as well as almost 30 Russian citizens – more than 2.2 million questions were received by the organizers. Additionally, questions were raised by six foreign newspapers, including those from countries considered “hostile”, including the United States and Britain. Ria Novosti reports it.
The event was moderated by the military correspondent of Perviy Kanal of Russian state TV Dmitry Kulko, and the journalist of Vhtrk Aleksandra Suvorova.
“In Ukraine we don’t need a ceasefire but a lasting peace”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in Moscow There is no need for a ceasefire with Ukraine but “a long-term, lasting peace with guarantees for the Russian Federation and its citizens”, while a truce – Putin always states – could allow Ukrainian soldiers to “rest, obtain the necessary equipment and ammunition” and “engage in training, retraining and strengthening of staff”.
It is Putin himself who declares that Russia should have decided to intervene Ukraine before February 2022: “if I could look at the situation in 2022, knowing what is happening now, I would have thought that the decision taken at the beginning of 2022 should have been taken earlier. This is the first thing – Putin emphasizes -. And secondly, knowing this , we should have simply started preparing for these events, including the special military operation.”
Putin: despite everything, mutual sympathy with Italy
“Despite what is happening now, we perceive in Italian society a certain sympathy for Russia, just as we have for Italy”, Putin said, recalling his relations with Silvio Berlusconi. He was a “very warm person in his relationships, very industrious, very tenacious”, said the head of the Kremlin, underlining that the Knight “did a lot” for “the development of relations between Italy and Russia”. In addition to Berlusconi, Putin has named former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and former French President Jacques Chirac as the politicians he would sit down with “to drink tea”. “They contributed to the development of relations with the Russian Federation”, explained the Kremlin leader during his end-of-year press conference, adding that these are leaders “from whom he learned a lot”.
The Russian economy, according to Putin
In the first instance, Putin claimed that the Russian economy ranks first in Europe and fourth in the world. He added: “It is a stable economy despite external threats.”
“International financial and economic institutions have placed Russia first in Europe in terms of economic volume and fourth place globally in terms of purchasing power parity. Before us are China, the United States and India. We overtook Germany already last year and this year we left Japan behind us. However, this is not an indicator to ‘fall asleep’ or settle down. Everything is developing, everything is actively progressing,” the president said.
Then, a concern for Putin: “Just yesterday, while I was preparing for today’s event, I spoke with the president of the Central Bank, who told me that inflation is around 9.2-9.3 percent“Putin said, calling it an alarming sign, but offset by the fact that wages would, according to him, have “grown by 9 percent in real terms”.
The Kursk region and the war in Ukraine
Putin admitted that he does not know when Moscow’s troops will regain full control of the Kursk region, on the border with Ukraine. The region was stormed by Kiev’s forces in early August and partially occupied. “We will throw them out without a doubt. Absolutely. It cannot be otherwise. On a specific date, sorry, I can’t say at the moment,” he said.
On the Ukrainian front, according to Putin, Russia “is moving towards the main objectives” outlined at the beginning of the special military operation”. Ria Novosti.
“Advances are taking place along the entire front line, Russian fighters are reconquering square kilometers of territory every day – he said – the capabilities of the armed forces are increasing”.
“Everyone is fighting, in the literal sense of the word, heroically, and at this moment we wish everyone, both those fighting in the Kursk region and those fighting along the entire front line, good luck, with victory and homecoming“.
In response to a question from an American journalist, Putin said that “the Kiev regime has repeatedly committed terrorist attacks against many citizens of Russia. This now applies to Kursk, to the Kursk region, where they shoot at civilians, and to other territories of Russia. They have killed journalistsyour colleagues, and committed terrorist acts against journalists. We have never heard words of condemnation of such terrorist attacks from the Western journalistic body.” This was reported by the Russian news agency Tass.
The challenge to the West
There was also a mention of the “technological duel” with the United States and EU countries, relating to the new Russian hypersonic ballistic missile Oreshnik, to demonstrate that it cannot be shot down by Western air defenses.
“They can designate a target in Kiev, and see if they can shoot it down, we would really like to do this experiment,” Putin said, adding that the missile now has a range of 5,500 kilometers.
ADVERTISING“There is no possibility for the enemy to easily shoot down or destroy the Russian Oreshnik hypersonic missile,” Putin said, adding that “not even anti-missile systems positioned on Polish territory will be able to stop it.”
Putin, Trump e Assad
The Russian president said he was ready to meet the American president-electDonald Trump, stressing that he had not spoken to him in “over four years.”
Asked about the former Syrian president, Bashar Hafiz al-Assad, who flew to Russia after the overthrow of his regime, Putin said he had not met him, but plans to do so.
On the geopolitical balance in Syria and Moscow’s interventions, he then commented: “Russia has intervened militarily in Syria so that a terrorist enclave was not createdlike that in other countries, for example in Afghanistan” but recent events, including the fall of Bashar al Assad, are not “a defeat”
ADVERTISING“In general, we have achieved our goals,” Putin said. “You (Western journalists) want to present everything that is happening in Syria as some kind of failure, a defeat for Russia, I assure you that this is not the case,” Putin said.
Putin said that he does not yet know whether Russia will maintain its military bases in Syriabecause this will depend on relations with the new authorities. “We need to see how our relations will develop with those political forces that now control and will control the situation in this country in the future. Our interests must coincide.”
Moscow will maintain relations with countries and groups in the region and has called for the Khmeimim air base to be used to channel humanitarian aid.
