Putin on Ukraine and the West: Key takeaways from latest speech
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Vladimir Putin a gave an extensive speech on the Ukrainian crisis on Wednesday, as he met with regional heads to discuss measures of socioeconomic support to counter the wave of anti-Russian sanctions. Putin provided his take on the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, its causes, and the goals Russia pursues.
Conflict was inevitable
Launching the "special military operation" was the only option Russia had left to end the years-long bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, Putin stressed. At the same time, limiting its scope to the breakaway Donbass republics only would only push the "frontline" westwards, rather than defuse the situation, he noted.
While waging the war against the breakaway regions of Donbass, Kiev has been preparing for a broad offensive to re-capture them, Putin said, adding that "almost 14,000 civilians, including children, have been killed" in the conflict. Ukrainian authorities also sought to attack Crimea, which split from the country back in 2014 and joined Russia via a referendum.
"Encouraged by the United States and other Western countries, Ukraine was purposefully preparing for a scenario of force, a massacre and an ethnic cleansing in Donbass. A massive onslaught on Donbass and later Crimea was just a matter of time. However, our Armed Forces have shattered these plans," Putin said.
Kiev actively sought weapons of mass destruction
Ukrainian authorities have openly stated their goal to obtain weapons of mass destruction, namely nuclear bombs and means of their delivery, Russia's president has said. Given the extremely hostile attitude of Kiev, such systems would have been used to target Russia once they were ready.
Putin also touched upon the Ukrainian biolab network allegations, raised by the Russian military amid the offensive. The facilities scattered across the country have allegedly been engaged in biological weapons development with direct support of Washington. The allegations, backed by documents published by the Russian military, have been met with varying degrees of denial from the top US officials.
"There was a network of dozens of laboratories in Ukraine, where military biological programs were conducted under the guidance and with the financial support of the Pentagon, including experiments with coronavirus strains, anthrax, cholera, African swine fever and other deadly diseases," Putin said, adding that now "frantic attempts" are underway to conceal the "traces of these secret programs."
Ukraine established as 'anti-Russia'
Over the past few years, under the close guidance of their Western handlers, the Kiev authorities have morphed Ukraine into "anti-Russia", Putin suggested. The only goal of the incumbent Kiev "regime" is to drag the conflict on for as long as possible, with little regard to the fate of the civilians or destruction that ensues.
"We are seeing again and again that the Kiev regime, for which its Western masters have set the task of creating an aggressive 'anti-Russia', is indifferent to the fate of the people of Ukraine themselves," Putin said.
"It is also obvious that the Western handlers are simply pushing the Kiev authorities to continue the bloodshed. They are supplied with more and more weaponry batches, they are provided with intelligence, they also receive other assistance, including military advisers and mercenaries."
Kiev & West exhibit 'shocking cynicism'
Both Ukrainian authorities and the collective West have exhibited "shocking cynicism" amid the conflict, Putin said, offering the ballistic missile strike on the center of Donetsk that occurred on Monday as an example of such behavior. The strike killed at least 20 civilians.
"They are striking randomly at squares with the fervor of fanatics and the exasperation of the doomed. They are acting like the Nazis did when they tried to drag as many innocent victims as they could to their graves," Putin said, adding that Kiev had tried to blame the strike on Russia through "blatant lies."
The attitude of "the so-called civilized world" to the missile strike turned to be "shocking in its extreme cynicism" as well, the president went on.
"The European and American press did not even notice this tragedy in Donetsk, as if nothing happened," Putin said. "Just like they have been hypocritically looking the other way over the past eight years as mothers buried their children in Donbass, as elderly people were killed. This is simply moral degradation, complete de-humanization."
Crumbling dominance of the West behind global turmoil
Ultimately, the West's desire to maintain its global dominance is the root of the ongoing Ukrainian turmoil, as well as crises in the other parts of the globe, Putin believes.
"Today, the entire planet has to pay the price for the ambitions of the West, for its attempts by any means to maintain its crumbling dominance," he said.
Concerned only with their "vested interests and super profits," the Western elites led the world into the current situation through "years of mistakes and short-sited decisions."
For instance, the impact of the anti-Russian sanctions, imposed over the Ukrainian conflict, is already being felt by the common people in the West - while the elites have been bizarrely trying to blame it on Moscow, Putin noted.
(RT.com)
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I guess this means Putin is all in on this. Yet this war is starting to look like the "Winter War" between Finland and Soviet Russia.
I have to rate it a toss up right now.
The stakes for Putin are as high as they can be.
I guess he should have kept a firmer grip on those cards. That much whining suggests he went all in on a bluff and now heads will roll for his hubris.
Or he could just use a tactical nuke or three and end all resistance in Ukraine. Defy the US and NATO to end the world over it.
That is the problem with dealing with someone that has nothing left to lose; which Putin definitely is.
The west is desperate to call his bluff- when he and his mouth pieces keep saying they aren't bluffing. He certainly is putting on a good show for someone that is supposed to be bluffing.
So all of our "heads will roll for his hubris".
If we get there more than likely, however, the comment was aimed at Vlad's threatening of the "traitors" in his midst ... a blame-someone-other-than-me mire all narcissistic plutocrats eventually sink into.
According to that speech, he's doing more than that. Who are the traitors he is talking about?
I think he just told Russian soldiers that they'll either face Ukrainian bullets or they'll face Russian ones.
I'm not sure what you think the alternative would be. Do you believe the West should have just stayed out of it? Do you think Putin would have stopped at Ukraine? I don't. He threatened Finland, for goodness sake. He keeps taking more and more territory and no one stops him so why would he stop if we just rolled over, further, in Ukraine? Did you see the vid of the "Security Briefing" farce a couple days prior to the invasion? The man has gone around the bend, I think, so confrontation was inevitable. Staying out of the Ukraine situation wasn't really an option.
What's shocking about all this is that you and others here believe putin.
They aren't exactly saying they agree with Putin, but they are definitely, by seeding this, saying we should listen to Putin.
It's akin to asking everyone to listen to Jeffery Dahmer justify killing and eating people, "It's free speech! And besides, he said he was rescuing them from themselves, how do we know that they weren't afflicted or cursed somehow and he saved them from eternal torment and damnation by consuming their sin, even Jesus asked his disciples to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood...".
Rational humans don't buy insane mass murderers excuses or justifications, but I guess we can't expect everyone to be rational or humane, especially white right wing conservatives that seem to at least view favorably if not worship Putin and his brand of strongman white nationalist fascism.
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Russian Dictator Vlad Putin just came out as a despot and a tyrant threatening the entire world and demonizing his own people and all you can think of to do is to degrade the President of the United States? To attack The Leader of the Free World? Exactly whose side are you on anyway?
Actually, his post attacked the idiots supporting Biden no matter what.
Could you possibly be any more pickaune?
Hmmmm
Facts actually DO matter to some of us.
If your post was accurate, there would be no need for me to correct you.
I must then assume that was an affirmative...
What did you say?
You are calling me a quisling, a traitor.
Where is the fucking moderator?
Tessylo never used the word, Quisling. And you know what that word means, who it was applied to and why.
So, I'll use it. Quisling. Everything you support is against democracy, freedom, choice and American decency.
Oh FFS, here we go again with the victim card BS.
I really am not interested in what you assume.
From what I have seen, you usually assume wrongly.
Wow, what have you read to lead you to think that way?
IMO Putin is signaling that a decision point is approaching. Russia either prepares to wind down the conflict or Russia escalates the conflict. And Putin really hasn't provided anything that indicates which way he is leaning.
It's clear that the United States and Europe are slowly moving toward a direct military confrontation with Russia using Ukraine as a proxy. The United States and Europe has been supplying Ukraine with a wider range of more advanced weapons. So, Putin faces a choice of either preparing to wind down the conflict or escalating the conflict.
The wild card are the economic measures employed by the west that has turned the military war in Ukraine into a global conflict using finance as a weapon of war. The impact of economic measures directed toward Russia are obvious. What is less obvious is how those economic measures are affecting western economies and the economies of neutral and pro-Russian countries. Any blowback from those economic measures will create political demands to end the war. And political demands to end the war will be justification for the United States and Europe to escalate the conflict and become more directly involved in the fighting. The west escalating the military conflict with intent of ending the war increases the risk of a nuclear confrontation on a global scale.
No its not. Not "clear" at all...
(Actually that phrase-- in fact most of comment 2, seem to be lifted verbatim out of some Putin propaganda screed...).
Are you suggesting that President Joe Biden has been lying to the American people about the amounts and types of weapons and munitions the United States is giving Ukraine?
It may depend of his answer from China. If China is unwilling to support Russia, militarily, I think you will start seeing Putin pull out the stops and chemical warfare will be next. Putin, like his biggest fan Trump, will never accept defeat, he will continue escalating until Ukraine is waist deep in Russian dead, but he will have finally won the war.
I agree, China is a factor. But not so much militarily. Putin wants to avoid China sanctioning Russia, too. And Putin seeking military assistance strokes China's ego by suggesting that China has a superior military. Obviously Putin wants China to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine after Russia draws down to avoid the United Nations actions after the fact. The UN doesn't want to be involved but doesn't want to be left out either. As usual the United Nations will take action when the fighting begins to wind down.
Ukraine is not going to defeat Russia. Ukraine is not going to force Russia to withdraw. That's why Zelensky has been trying to broaden the war to include Europe and the United States. Ukraine is trying to fight a war of attrition which Ukraine can't win. All of Ukraine's forces are involved while only a portion of Russian forces are involved.
Are some just openly posting RT.com Putin propaganda now on NT?
I've no doubt this entire seed came straight from the Kremlin propaganda department. It's filled with bullshit lies and vile Russian rhetoric claiming Russia is somehow a righteous hero who was pushed into this by Ukraine and just couldn't stand by watching a humanitarian crisis across their border and were forced to invade to save lives. What utter fucking horse shit. It's shameful even reprinting this RT propaganda trash.
This "news" source is headquartered in Dubai.
The "bignewsnetwork.com" is headquartered in Dubai, but they are just posting a story directly from RT.com as the article notes. This entire seed is directly from the Kremlin propaganda department.
"RT is a Russian state-controlled international television network funded by the tax budget of the Russian government . It operates pay television or free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia.
RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy . Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation and conspiracy theories ."
The above seed and perspectives, opinions and views contained within came directly from RT.com a "state-controlled international television network funded by the tax budget of the Russian government".
I'm not sure I see any comments by anyone in here that considers the article anything other than propaganda. That is, I don't see anyone arguing Putin's case. In spite of it being propaganda, it is a useful article to read, if only to know what Russia is trying to sell.
One of the questions I think would be obvious is, how does what Putin is saying square with what Russians living in western Europe are undoubtedly telling friends and family back in Russia about what they are seeing? Unless I'm missing something, the West isn't crumbling and, if anything, is finally getting of its collective ass as far as defense is concerned, or seems to be. Plus they are getting unfiltered or uncensored info in the west to tell those same friends and families about what they're seeing.
I wasn't familiar with that site so I took a quick look. And that was the first thing I noticed-- they posted an article from RT. (Which is a purveyor of the Russian party line-- which is whatever propaganda the current Russian gov't is peddling).
And IMO what's strange is that biased Russian propaganda is being further distributed by being posted here.
That's probably not a direct violation of the CoC-- but it does strike me as a bit bizarre that NT is helping to disseminate propaganda that is basically supporting war criminals.
Should the CoC be modified to address this? I
(really don't know...)
Ever look at the news?
(Most social media sites are not a good resource, because most of what users post are comments attacking other users' political views. For better coverage, check out Twitter-- once you find the better accounts there's a tremendous amount of infor there!)
There are numerous articles about that every day!
In great detail.
IIRC I seeded an item or two about that, but maybe I forgot,
"Now"?
Actually that's been going on for a while.
(Although there's been a bit of a change-- since there has been so much more evidence available of how Putin is directly targeting civilians, and is deliberately committing war crimes against innocent civilians ... some of his most ardent supporters on NT have toned it down considerably. So the amound of pro-Putin propaganda here has decreased.)
But there are a still a few holdouts.
Well, of course one could argue that the purpose of NT is to provide a forum for the presentation of all points of view. Everyone's opinion should be respected!
"Are some just openly posting RT.com Putin propaganda now on NT?"
Da! It certainly seems to be so on certain 'articles' by certain posters.
The MAGA continue to roam, untethered.
I haven't looked at Stormfront in quite a while (they claim to be the largest White Supremicist* site on the Internet-- at at least they did last time I looked).
Maybe I'll check the CoC to analyze the fine points, and if its OK then seed something from there--- should make for an interesting discussion!
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*IIRC, originally it was only pretty much supremicist, but in recent years they have become a bit more "fair and balanced" and promote a lot of anti-Semitism as well).
Interesting rant by Putin. Of course the question is how much of it does he actually believe. Not what is reality but what he believes.
Of course the question is how much of it does he actually believe. Not what is reality but what he believes.
Actually I look at it a bit differently. I could be wrong but to me what seems important is not so much what he believes-- but rather what he actually does!
I actually think they go hand in hand. While I admit he is paranoid and evil I am not ready to say he is crazy. I think what he decides to do is based on what he believes is reality. If he is just talking shit about Ukraine being full of Nazis ready to attack Russia I think he is less likely to use nukes than if he truly believes they are Nazis ready to attack Russia. Of course that is all conjecture on my part, he may be totally crazy and may push the big red button because it is pretty.