The West’s latest initiatives, including the decision to allow Kiev to strike inside Russia’s borders, are leading us “down a path of very serious problems.”. It is eight in the evening when Vladimir Putin begins his interview with ANSA and other international agencies in St. Petersburg, his hometown, during the days of the International Economic Forum.
Talk for more than three hours. He explains that Moscow could reflect on the right to react to Kiev’s use of Western missiles against its territory by in turn supplying the same weapons “to the regions of the world from where attacks will be launched on sensitive sites of those countries that supply weapons to ‘Ukraine’, i.e. NATO. He then specifies that it is not Russia’s intention to attack the Atlantic Alliance. It’s something different: “You invented that Russia wants to attack NATO. Have you gone completely crazy? Look at our potential and that of NATO, we are not stupid, Russia has no imperial ambition”.
He distinguishes the two things, but the decision on missiles clearly didn’t go down well with him. The meeting takes place at the Lachta Center, Gazprom’s headquarters, an ultra-modern building overlooking the Gulf of Finland. Putin speaks with a window overlooking the sea behind him, with a pier where the Russian, USSR and Soviet flags fly, while the white night of St. Petersburg passes.
++ Putin, ‘we attack NATO countries? Are you crazy?’ ++
He also responded to a question from ANSA on the Italian position on Ukraine: “We see that Italy’s position towards Russia is more contained than other European countries and we evaluate this appropriately”. “In Italy – he adds – caveman Russophobia is not spreading and we take this into consideration. We hope that when the situation regarding Ukraine begins to stabilise, we will be able to re-establish relations with Italy perhaps even faster than with some other Village”.
The focus of the interview is on Ukraine. The Russian position is known but the Tsar, this time, has the opportunity to tell it live to Western reporters: “everyone believes that Russia started the war but instead it started when there was a coup in Ukraine.” He repeats that Russia intervened to help the Russian-speaking populations hit “with weapons” by Kiev. Putin adds that the war could end soon and also says how: “If the United States stops supplying weapons to Ukraine, the conflict will end within two or three months.” But what would happen to Ukraine? And the hypothesis that is being talked about in Europe, with France one step ahead of everyone, of sending soldiers to Ukraine for the Russian president is nothing new. “Western military instructors are already present on the territory of Ukraine and unfortunately for them they suffer losses. But the United States and European states prefer to remain silent.”
Even on the possibility of using nuclear weapons, Putin repeats that “Russia has a nuclear doctrine which provides that all means can only be used to respond to actions that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country”. And he adds: “The only country to have used nuclear weapons is the United States. So let’s try to avoid the threat of using this type of weapon.”
++ Putin, ‘we attack NATO countries? Are you crazy?’ ++
He denies Russia’s use of disinformation ahead of the European elections and also responds on the American elections. For Russia it doesn’t matter who wins the US elections and Moscow has never had “a special relationship with Donald Trump”. But there is “judicial persecution” against him. On the other hand, the US “is not fighting for Ukraine but for its own leadership in the world, and for this reason it does not want Russia to prevail”.
After more than three hours of questions and answers, Putin greets by answering a question about the celebrations of the Normandy landings: “It’s a celebration but it seems that we Russians are strangers, yet we have made the greatest contribution in terms of deaths and sacrifices. We were not invited. Only scammers can change the cards on the table.” The message to Macron could not have been clearer.
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