RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Russia’s New START suspension, special op and economic measures
Russia suspends its participation in New START, the last major remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the United States, President Vladimir Putin said in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday.
According to him, Moscow is not withdrawing from the treaty, but will return to its implementation as soon as it understands how nuclear arsenals of the United Kingdom and France will be taken into account.
Apart from that, Russia will prepare for possible nuclear tests, but won’t be the first one to conduct them.
In his address, which lasted one hour and 45 minutes, the president brought up such issues as the special military operation, criticized the Western states’ policy and announced a number of new social and economic measures, including the creation of a special fund for supporting veterans of combat actions and an education reform.
Russia suspends participation in New START treaty
In the wake of NATO’s recent statements, Russia is forced to suspend its participation in the nuke pact. "I repeat, [Russia] is not withdrawing from the treaty, no, but merely suspending its participation," the president said.
Russia will return to the treaty as soon as it understands how the arsenals of not only the United States but also other nuclear powers of NATO - the United Kingdom and France, will be taken into account.
The Russian Defense Ministry and state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom should prepare for nuclear tests if needed, but Moscow won’t the first one to conduct them.
Special operation in Ukraine
Russia launched its special military operation in order to protect people on its historic lands and eliminate a threat coming from Ukraine. Moscow made every effort for peaceful settlement, but "a completely different scenario" was plotted behind its back and the Western states involved in the talks play "with loaded dice."
The responsibility for current events lies with the West, which is trying to pull away from Russia "the historic territories, which are called Ukraine today." "It was them [the West] who unleashed the war. And we were and are using force to stop it," the president said.
The Western elites are seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia and "are planning to turn a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation" and Moscow "will react accordingly." The West cannot but realize that "it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield," the Russian leader said.
Putin warned that weapons supplies to Kiev will trigger consequences. "The longer the range of the Western systems being brought to Ukraine, the farther away from our borders we will be forced to push the threat," Putin emphasized.
Support for special operation’s participants
Russia needs to set up a special state fund for providing assistance to veterans and families of those killed in the special operation, the president said.
"Each family of the deceased, each veteran should be assigned a personal social worker," he said, noting that the fund’s structures should be deployed in all regions of the country by the end of the year.
Economic measures
The West is fighting Russia "on the economic front" to make Russian citizens suffer, "but it hasn’t succeeded anywhere and won’t manage to do this," Putin said. On the contrary, "the initiators of sanctions are punishing themselves."
The Russian authorities won’t ruin the economy for the sake of developing the defense sector, he pointed out. "We have everything to ensure security and create conditions for the country’s steady development."
The Russian economy and management system proved to be more stable than projected in the West, Putin said.
He explained that the economic situation was stabilized due to the collaboration of the government, parliament, the Bank of Russia, Russian regions, the business community, and corporate teams.
On Russia’s traitors
The absolute majority of Russians have supported the steps on protecting Donbass, Putin stated. Citizens who have taken the path of betrayal will be held responsible according to the law, but Russia will not engage in a 'witch hunt.'
"Let’s not settle scores with those who stepped aside, who backed away from their homeland. Let this remain on their conscience, let them live with it," Putin said.
** Vast majority of Russians supported special military operation in Ukraine, says Putin
The vast majority of Russians have taken a principled stance in support of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday in his annual address to the Federal Assembly.
"I am proud and believe that we are all proud that our multinational people, the vast majority of our citizens, took a principled stance regarding the special military operation, grasped the meaning of what we are doing and voiced their support of our actions to protect Donbass," he said.
"A real sense of patriotism emerged as the prime reason for this outward support, a feeling that is historically inherent in our people. It astounds you with its dignity and deep awareness of each - I emphasize each - of their own destiny with the destiny of their Fatherland," Putin stressed.
"Dear friends, I would like to thank the people of Russia for their courage and determination," the Russian president stated.
Putin expressed his gratitude to all Russian soldiers for their heroic efforts in the course of the special military operation in Ukraine.
"I would like to thank our heroes - Navy and Army soldiers and officers, Russian National Guardsmen, the staff of special services and all law enforcement bodies, fighters of the Donetsk and Lugansk corps, volunteers, patriots, who are fighting in the Bars army combat reserve," he continued. "I would like to extend my apologies for being unable to name everyone on the list during today’s address."
"You should know that when I worked on the text of this address I included an extremely long list of these heroic formations, but then decided against including it, because, as I have said, it is impossible to name everyone involved and I was just afraid that I would offend someone by leaving them out," Putin noted.
"My deepest bows to the parents, wives, and families of our defenders, doctors and paramedics, nurses, who save the wounded; railway workers and [transportation] drivers, who supply the battlefront; construction workers, who erect fortifications, rebuild houses, roads, civilian facilities; workers and engineers of defense-oriented plants, who work round-the-clock in endless shifts; farmers, who we depend on to ensure the country’s food security."
Putin also expressed his gratitude to teachers who take it upon themselves to take care of Russia’s young generations, "especially those teachers who actually keep working under complicated conditions near the battlefront."
The Russian president also praised the contribution of volunteers and journalists, particularly war correspondents, who risk their lives carrying out their duties on the battlefront in order to tell the truth to the world, as well as the contribution of pastors of Russia’s traditional religions, military priests, civil servants and businessmen.
Russia’s special military operation
On February 21, 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, (the DPR and LPR respectively). Russia signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with their leaders. Moscow recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions as of the beginning of 2014.
Russian President Putin announced on February 24, 2022, that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics for assistance, he had decided to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The DPR and the LPR launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.
From September 23 to September 27, 2022, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic as well as the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region held a referendum where the majority of voters opted to join Russia.
On September 30, 2022, President Putin and the heads of the DPR, the LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions signed treaties on their entry to Russia. Later, the State Duma and the Federation Council (the lower and upper houses of Russia’s parliament) approved legislation on ratifying these treaties, as well as federal constitutional laws on the accession of the four regions to Russia.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Putin raises tension on Ukraine, suspends START nuclear pact
Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Moscow’s participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States, announcing the move Tuesday in a bitter speech in which he made clear he would not change his strategy in the war in Ukraine.
Putin emphasized, however, that Russia isn’t withdrawing from the pact yet, and hours after his address the Foreign Ministry said Moscow would respect the treaty’s caps on nuclear weapons. It also said Russia would continue to exchange information about test launches of ballistic missiles per earlier agreements with the United States.
In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast his country — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said it was Russia, not Ukraine, fighting for its very existence.
“We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said ahead of the war’s first anniversary Friday. “The Ukrainian people have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”
The speech reiterated a litany of grievances he has frequently offered as justification for the widely condemned military campaign, while vowing no military letup.
Along with limits on the number of nuclear weapons, the 2010 New START envisages broad inspections of nuclear sites. Putin said Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does so, a move that would end a global ban on such tests in place since the Cold War era.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded by calling for Russia and the United States to return to dialogue immediately because “a world without nuclear arms control is a far more dangerous and unstable one.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Moscow’s decision to suspend participation in the treaty as “really unfortunate and very irresponsible.”
“We’ll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does,” he said while visiting Greece.
China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun called on the U.S. and Russia to “continue to negotiate with each other in finding a good solution.”
U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Poland a day after his surprise visit to Ukraine, did not mention the START suspension but blasted Putin for the invasion. He pledged continued support for Ukraine despite “hard and bitter days ahead.”
“Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever,” Biden said at Warsaw’s landmark Royal Castle before a cheering crowd of Poles and Ukrainian refugees.
Putin’s announcement was the second time in recent days the Ukraine war showed it could spread into perilous new terrain, after Blinken told China over the weekend that it would be a “serious problem” if Beijing provided arms and ammunition to Russia.
China and Russia have aligned their foreign policies to oppose Washington. Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion or atrocities against civilians in Ukraine, while strongly criticizing Western economic sanctions on Moscow. Late last year, Russia and China held joint naval drills.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Vadym Skibitskyi, told The Associated Press his agency hasn’t seen any signs so far that China is providing weapons to Moscow.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and made a dash toward Kyiv, apparently expecting to overrun the capital quickly. But stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces — supported by Western weapons — turned back Moscow’s troops. While Ukraine has reclaimed many areas initially seized by Russia, the sides have become bogged down elsewhere.
The war has revived the divide between Russia and the West, reinvigorated the NATO alliance, and created the biggest threat to Putin’s rule of more than two decades.
In Tuesday’s speech, Putin again offered his own version of recent history, discounting Ukraine’s arguments that it needed Western help to thwart a Russian military takeover. He has repeatedly depicted NATO’s expansion to include countries close to Russia as an existential threat to his country.
“It’s they who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” he said before an audience of lawmakers, officials and soldiers, and broadcast on all state TV channels.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who was in Ukraine on Tuesday, said she wished Putin had taken a different approach.
“What we heard this morning was propaganda that we already know,” Meloni said in English. “He says (Russia) worked on diplomacy to avoid the conflict, but the truth is that there is somebody who is the invader and somebody who is defending itself.”
Also meeting with Zelenskyy was the newly appointed chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, who led a delegation for the first time since the start of the war and since Republicans won control of the House of Representatives.
Chairman Mike McCaul and a handful of other GOP lawmakers said they had a productive meeting about what Zelenskyy needs for winning the war. He provided them with a list of weapons, including longer-range artillery and air-to-surface systems.
The meeting comes as some hard-right Republicans are vowing to block future U.S. aid to Ukraine. “We have seen time and again the majority of Republicans and Democrats support our assistance to Ukraine,” McCaul said in a statement. “But the Biden administration needs to lay out their long-term strategy.”
Putin denied any wrongdoing in Ukraine, even after Kremlin forces struck civilian targets, including hospitals, and are widely accused of war crimes.
Zelenskyy cited fresh attacks on Ukrainian civilians Tuesday, and downplayed Putin’s speech.
“I have not watched it, because during this time there were missile strikes on Kherson. Twenty-one people were wounded and six were killed,” he said.
Putin also accused the West of taking aim at Russian culture, religion and values. He fired another broadside at Western gender policies that he described as efforts to destroy “traditional” values.
And he said Western sanctions hadn’t “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.” He blasted Russian tycoons who kept their assets in the West and saw them confiscated or frozen as part of the sanctions.
“Believe me, ordinary people had no sympathy for those who lost their yachts, palaces and other assets abroad,” Putin said.
While Russia’s Constitution mandates that the president deliver the state-of-the-nation speech annually, Putin never gave one in 2022. Last year, the Kremlin also canceled two other big annual events — Putin’s news conference and a highly scripted phone-in marathon taking questions from the public.
AP/TASS
