Vladimir Putin may be disappointed to learn that his much-awaited state of the country speech, given this morning in the heart of Moscow, did not have the same effect as he had intended.
Before Russia’s chambers of Parliament and a sea of military leaders in Moscow, he delivered a protracted diatribe against the West almost one year after he invaded Ukraine.
Even the crème de la crème of the Kremlin couldn’t help but exhibit symptoms of exhaustion as senior officials were photographed dozing during their president’s 115-minute tirade.
Videos of the speech’s live transmission by Russian state television even seemed to show a few spectators dozing asleep in their seats as Putin babbled on for an additional hour and 45 minutes.
The Russian national anthem then started playing when his speech eventually came to a conclusion, and several people could be seen refusing to sing along, their faces plastered with attitudes of indifference.
A similar scene occurred in September when Putin gave another protracted speech to announce Russia had annexated four territories in eastern and southern Ukraine, despite not being in complete control of any of them. Images of bored and disapproving officials watching their president rant recall that scene.
This morning’s speech at the Gostiny Dvor conference center in the Russian capital covered a lot of territory, but the most of it was devoted to his “special military operation” in Ukraine and his criticism of the West.
In order to attain “limitless power,” he said that Western countries had instigated the situation in Ukraine and were attempting to make it a worldwide battle with Russia.
Putin addressed legislators and military members, “We were doing all we could to negotiate a peaceful resolution to this tough situation, but behind our backs a quite different scenario was being planned.”
He promised to “systematically” carry out the attack in Ukraine and claimed he was speaking to them “at a time which we all know is a tough, watershed moment for our nation, a time of fundamental, irrevocable changes across the globe.”
Putin used a different reason for the conflict, saying his troops are defending residents in areas of Ukraine that Russia has subsequently forcibly seized.
We are protecting life and our house, he said. And the West aims for unrestricted dominance.
Fighting between Ukrainian government troops and rebels with Russian support in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas area was cast by Putin as a struggle for independence. Since 2014, there has been fighting there, which Putin has used as grounds for starting the bigger attack.
He said that since 2014, the Donbas has been battling “without surrender in the context of incessant threats and hate that was emanating from the Kyiv administration” for the right to live in one’s own territory and speak one’s own language.
“In the meanwhile, and you know that very well, we were trying absolutely everything necessary to resolve the issue amicably.”
Putin then switched gears, denouncing what he viewed as Western ignorance and charging that the West was conducting a cultural war against Russian Orthodox Christian beliefs.
According to Putin, “millions of people in the West realise they are being led to a true spiritual disaster” and “the Anglican Church prepares to study the notion of a gender-neutral God.”
He vehemently criticized the Church’s recent debates on allowing priests to “bless” same-sex weddings and accused Western countries of altering historical truths to support “woke” views.
They continually criticize our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church, and other traditional faiths in our nation, and they falsify historical facts.
“Look at what they do to their own peoples: they proclaim perversion, the erasure of the family, cultural and national identity, and child abuse to be the norm.” Also, same-sex unions must be blessed by clergymen, according to Putin.
Before the address started this morning, at approximately 1 a.m. local time, an armored convoy of the dictator was seen making its way to the Kremlin while traffic in downtown Moscow was suspended.
Putin’s late-night sprint to the Kremlin in preparation for the state of the nation speech had no formal justification.
Putin did not give a speech in 2022, despite the Constitution’s need that President do so, after his army suffered several reverses.
A countdown for the event began on several state TV stations on Monday, adding to the suspense leading up to it. On Tuesday morning, Russia’s main news agency, RIA Novosti, speculated that the speech would be “historic.”
This year, the Kremlin has banned journalists from traveling to “unfriendly” nations, which include the US, the UK, and EU nations.
»Putin’s ruling elite are seen sleeping through his anti-Western state of the union speech«