President Vladimir Putin of Russia will address the Russian people from the Russian parliament in his annual address on Tuesday. During his thunder sermon he lashes out hard at the so-called ‘Nazi regime’ in Kiev and the West. The belligerent message: “The West will continue to try to destabilize our nation.”
Putin’s speech is laced with war propaganda. Putin sketches a history in which the West has repeatedly provoked Russia by expanding NATO eastward, building army bases and so-called biochemical laboratories on the Russian border, and military and financial support to former Soviet countries: “I would like to repeat: they are the war started, and we used force to stop it.” Applause follows.
According to the established Russian pattern, the fight against the German Nazi regime is also involved, which is said to be allowed by the West to waltz across Europe. Putin omits from the story that the then Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had a peace treaty with Nazi Germany and that they divided Poland among themselves. He also says that the West is spiritually and religiously loose and allows pedophilia.
First anniversary of invasion
It is not often that Putin speaks publicly, so his annual speech draws many eyes at home and abroad. The rumor mill about the content has been running at full speed recently, especially since the speech roughly coincides with the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started on February 24, 2022.
Putin’s annual speech can best be compared to the US State of the Union address; an annual review and outlook in which the president summarizes the overall state of the country. Usually the Russian annual speeches are about topics such as demography or economics, in 2023 the war in Ukraine will be the focus. Present are the leaders of Russian politics and society, such as the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and members of the Russian parliament, the Duma.
Numerous speeches are given around the first anniversary of the Russian invasion. Putin himself gives three speeches, and President Joe Biden of the United States speaks in Warsaw about the war. The United Nations General Assembly and Security Council meeting will take place in New York later this week. China’s President Xi Jinping will also deliver a “peace speech” – he has never publicly condemned Russia for the invasion, pointing to the West as the instigator.