The Russian president on Friday slammed the West for a history of abuse against the rest of the world as he announced that four Ukrainian oblasts had joined the Russian Federation.
Ceremony Friday in Georgievsky Hall (Kremlin)
[English translation from the Kremlin website]:
In the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin, a ceremony was held on Friday to sign agreements on the admission of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, the Zaporizhia Region and the Kherson Region to Russia and the formation of new subjects of the Russian Federation.
You know, referendums were held in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Their results have been summed up, the results are known. People made their choice, a clear choice.
Today we are signing agreements on the admission of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, the Zaporizhia Region and the Kherson Region to Russia. I am sure that the Federal Assembly will support the constitutional laws on the adoption and formation in Russia of four new regions, four new subjects of the Russian Federation, because this is the will of millions of people.
(Applause.)
And this, of course, is their right, their inalienable right, which is enshrined in the first article of the U.N. Charter, which directly speaks of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
I repeat: this is an inalienable right of people, it is based on historical unity, in the name of which the generations of our ancestors won, those who from the origins of Ancient Russia for centuries created and defended Russia. Here, in Novorossia, Rumyantsev, Suvorov and Ushakov fought, Catherine II and Potemkin founded new cities. Here our grandfathers and great-grandfathers stood to death during the Great Patriotic War.
We will always remember the heroes of the “Russian spring”, those who did not come to terms with the neo-Nazi coup in Ukraine in 2014, all those who died for the right to speak their native language, preserve their culture, traditions, faith, for the right to live. These are the warriors of Donbass, the martyrs of the “Odessa Khatyn”, the victims of inhuman terrorist attacks staged by the Kyiv regime. These are volunteers and militias, these are civilians, children, women, old people, Russians, Ukrainians, people of various nationalities. This is the real people’s leader of Donetsk Alexander Zakharchenko, these are military commanders Arsen Pavlov and Vladimir Zhoga, Olga Kochura and Alexei Mozgovoy, this is the prosecutor of the Luhansk Republic Sergey Gorenko. This is paratrooper Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov and all our soldiers and officers who died the death of the brave during a special military operation. They are heroes. (Applause.)Heroes of Great Russia. And I ask you to honor their memory with a moment of silence.
(Moment of silence.)
Thank you.
Behind the choice of millions of residents in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions is our common destiny and a thousand-year history. This spiritual connection people passed on to their children and grandchildren. Despite all the trials, they carried love for Russia through the years. And no one can destroy this feeling in us. That is why both the older generations and the youth, those who were born after the tragedy of the collapse of the Soviet Union, voted for our unity, for our common future.
In 1991, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, without asking the will of ordinary citizens, representatives of the then party elites decided to collapse the USSR, and people suddenly found themselves cut off from their homeland. This tore apart, dismembered our people’s community, turned into a national catastrophe. As once after the revolution the borders of the union republics were cut behind the scenes, so the last leaders of the Soviet Union, contrary to the direct expression of the will of the majority of people in the 1991 referendum, ruined our great country, simply confronted the peoples with a fact.
I admit that they did not even fully understand what they were doing and what consequences this would inevitably lead to in the end. But that doesn’t matter anymore. There is no Soviet Union, the past cannot be returned. Yes, and Russia today does not need it anymore, we are not striving for this. But there is nothing stronger than the determination of millions of people who, by their culture, faith, traditions, language, consider themselves part of Russia, whose ancestors lived in a single state for centuries. There is nothing stronger than the determination of these people to return to their true, historical Fatherland.
For a long eight years, people in the Donbass were subjected to genocide, shelling and blockade, and in Kherson and Zaporozhye they tried to criminally cultivate hatred for Russia, for everything Russian. Now, already during the referendums, the Kyiv regime threatened with violence, death to school teachers, women who worked in election commissions, intimidated millions of people who came to express their will with repressions. But the unbroken people of Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson had their say.
I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that everyone remembers this: people living in Lugansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye become our citizens forever. (Applause.)
We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately cease fire, all hostilities, the war that it unleashed back in 2014, and return to the negotiating table. We are ready for this, it has been said more than once. But we will not discuss the choice of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, it has been made, Russia will not betray it. (Applause.) And today’s Kiev authorities should treat this free will of the people with respect, and nothing else. This is the only way to peace.
We will protect our land with all the forces and means at our disposal and will do everything to ensure the safe life of our people. This is the great liberation mission of our people.
We will definitely rebuild destroyed cities and towns, housing, schools, hospitals, theaters and museums, restore and develop industrial enterprises, factories, infrastructure, social security, pensions, healthcare and education systems.
Of course, we will work to improve the security level. Together we will make sure that citizens in the new regions feel the support of the entire people of Russia, the entire country, all the republics, all the territories and regions of our vast Motherland. (Applause.)
Dear friends, colleagues!
Today I want to address the soldiers and officers who are participating in a special military operation, the soldiers of Donbass and Novorossia, those who, after the decree on partial mobilization, join the ranks of the Armed Forces, fulfilling their patriotic duty, who, at the call of their hearts, come to the military registration and enlistment offices. I would like to turn to their parents, wives, and children, to tell them what our people are fighting for, what enemy is opposing us, who is throwing the world into new wars and crises, extracting their bloody profit from this tragedy.
Our compatriots, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine – the native part of our united people – saw with their own eyes what the ruling circles of the so-called West are preparing for all mankind. Here they, in fact, just threw off their masks, showed their true insides.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West decided that the world, all of us, would forever have to put up with its dictates. Then, in 1991, the West expected that Russia would not recover from such shocks and would fall apart on its own. Yes, it almost happened – we remember the 90s, the terrible 90s, hungry, cold and hopeless. But Russia resisted, revived, strengthened, again took its rightful place in the world.
At the same time, the West has been looking all this time and continues to look for a new chance to hit us, weaken and destroy Russia, which they have always dreamed of, split our state, pit peoples against each other, doom them to poverty and extinction. They are simply haunted by the fact that there is such a great, huge country in the world with its territory, natural wealth, resources, with a people who do not know how and will never live according to someone else’s orders.
The West is ready to step over everything to preserve the neo-colonial system that allows it to parasitize, in fact, plunder the world at the expense of the power of the dollar and technological dictates, collect real tribute from humanity, extract the main source of unearned prosperity, the rent of the hegemon. The maintenance of this rent is their key, genuine and absolutely self-serving motive. That is why total desovereignization is in their interests. Hence their aggression towards independent states, towards traditional values and original cultures, attempts to undermine international and integration processes beyond their control, new world currencies and centers of technological development. It is critical for them that all countries surrender their sovereignty to the United States.
The ruling elites of some states voluntarily agree to do this, voluntarily agree to become vassals; others are bribed, intimidated. And if it doesn’t work out, they destroy entire states, leaving behind humanitarian catastrophes, disasters, ruins, millions of ruined, mangled human destinies, terrorist enclaves, social disaster zones, protectorates, colonies and semi-colonies. They don’t care, as long as they get their own benefit.
I want to emphasize once again: it is precisely in greed, in the intention to preserve its unlimited power, that there are the real reasons for the hybrid war that the “collective West” is waging against Russia. They do not wish us freedom, but they want to see us as a colony. They want not equal cooperation, but robbery. They want to see us not as a free society, but as a crowd of soulless slaves.
For them, a direct threat is our thought and philosophy, and therefore they encroach on our philosophers. Our culture and art are a danger to them, so they are trying to ban them. Our development and prosperity is also a threat to them – competition is growing. They don’t need Russia at all, we need it. (Applause.)
I want to remind you that the claims to world domination in the past have been shattered more than once by the courage and steadfastness of our people. Russia will always be Russia. We will continue to defend both our values and our Motherland.
The West is counting on impunity, on getting away with everything. In fact, everything has gotten away with it so far. Agreements in the field of strategic security go to the wastebasket; agreements reached at the highest political level are declared false; firm promises not to expand NATO to the east, as soon as our former leaders bought into them, turned into a dirty deceit; treaties on anti-missile defense and intermediate- and shorter-range missiles have been unilaterally broken under far-fetched pretexts.
All we hear from all sides is that the West stands for order based on rules. Where did they come from? Who even saw these rules? Who agreed? Listen, this is just some kind of nonsense, sheer deception, double or already triple standards! It’s just designed for fools.
Russia is a great millennial power, a country-civilization, and will not live by such rigged, false rules. (Applause.)
It is the so-called West that has trampled on the principle of the inviolability of borders, and now it decides at its own discretion who has the right to self-determination and who does not, who is not worthy of it. Why they decide so, who gave them such a right is not clear. To themselves.
That is why the choice of people in the Crimea, in Sevastopol, in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson causes wild anger in them. This West has no moral right to evaluate it, even to stutter about the freedom of democracy. No, and never was!
Western elites deny not only national sovereignty and international law. Their hegemony has a pronounced character of totalitarianism, despotism and apartheid. They brazenly divide the world into their vassals, into the so-called civilized countries and into all the rest, who, according to the plan of today’s Western racists, should join the list of barbarians and savages. False labels – “rogue country”, “authoritarian regime” – are already ready, they stigmatize entire peoples and states, and there is nothing new in this. There is nothing new in this: the Western elites are what they were, and have remained so – colonialist. They discriminate, divide peoples into the first and other grades.
We have never accepted and will never accept such political nationalism and racism. And what, if not racism, is Russophobia, which is now spreading all over the world? What, if not racism, is the peremptory conviction of the West that its civilization, neoliberal culture is an indisputable model for the whole world? “He who is not with us is against us.” It even sounds strange.
The Western elites even shift repentance for their own historical crimes onto everyone else, demanding both the citizens of their countries and other peoples to confess for what they have nothing to do with at all, for example, for the period of colonial conquests.
It is worth reminding the West that it began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, and then followed the global slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India, Africa, the wars of England and France against China, as a result of which it was forced to open its ports for trade opium. What they did was put entire nations on drugs, purposefully exterminated entire ethnic groups for the sake of land and resources, staged a real hunt for people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice.
And we – we are proud that in the 20th century it was our country that led the anti-colonial movement, which opened up opportunities for many peoples of the world to develop in order to reduce poverty and inequality, to overcome hunger and disease.
I emphasize that one of the reasons for the centuries-old Russophobia, the undisguised malice of these Western elites towards Russia is precisely that we did not allow ourselves to be robbed during the period of colonial conquests, we forced the Europeans to trade for mutual benefit. This was achieved by creating a strong centralized state in Russia, which developed and strengthened itself on the great moral values of Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, on Russian culture and the Russian word open to all.
It is known that plans for interventions in Russia were repeatedly made, they tried to use the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century, and the period of upheavals after 1917 failed. The West still managed to seize the wealth of Russia at the end of the 20th century, when the state was destroyed. Then we were called both friends and partners, but in fact they treated us like a colony – trillions of dollars were siphoned out of the country under a variety of schemes. We all remember everything, we have not forgotten anything.
And these days, people in Donetsk and Luhansk, in Kherson and Zaporizhia have spoken out in favor of restoring our historical unity. Thank you! (Applause.)
Western countries have been repeating for centuries that they bring freedom and democracy to other peoples. Everything is exactly the opposite: instead of democracy – suppression and exploitation; instead of freedom – enslavement and violence. The entire unipolar world order is inherently anti-democratic and not free, it is deceitful and hypocritical through and through.
The United States is the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons twice, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the way, they set a precedent.
Let me also remind you that the United States, together with the British, turned Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne and many other German cities into ruins without any military necessity during World War II. And this was done defiantly, without any, I repeat, military necessity. There was only one goal: just like in the case of the nuclear bombings in Japan, to intimidate both our country and the whole world.
The United States left a terrible mark on the memory of the peoples of Korea and Vietnam with barbaric “carpet” bombing, the use of napalm and chemical weapons.
Until now, they actually occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and other countries, and at the same time cynically call them equal allies. Listen, I wonder what kind of alliance is this? The whole world knows that the leaders of these countries are being watched, the first persons of these states are being installed listening devices not only in office, but also in residential premises. This is a real shame. A shame both for those who do this and for those who, like a slave, silently and meekly swallow this rudeness.
They call orders and rude, insulting shouts at the address of their vassals Euro-Atlantic solidarity, the development of biological weapons, experiments on living people, including in Ukraine, noble medical research.
It is with their destructive policy, wars, and robbery that they provoked today’s colossal surge in migration flows. Millions of people suffer deprivation, abuse, die by the thousands, trying to get to the same Europe.
Now they are exporting bread from Ukraine. Where is he going under the pretext of “providing food security for the world’s poorest countries”? Where is it going? Everything goes to the same European countries. There, five percent only went to the poorest countries in the world. Again, another swindle and outright deception.
The American elite, in fact, uses the tragedy of these people to weaken their competitors, to destroy nation states. This also applies to Europe, this also applies to the identity of France, Italy, Spain and other countries with a long history.
Washington is demanding more and more sanctions against Russia, and most European politicians meekly agree with this. They clearly understand that the United States, pushing through the EU’s complete rejection of Russian energy carriers and other resources, is practically leading to the de-industrialization of Europe, to completely taking over the European market – they understand everything, these elites are European, they understand everything, but prefer to serve the interests of others. This is no longer servility, but a direct betrayal of their peoples. But God bless them, that’s their business.
But sanctions are not enough for the Anglo-Saxons, they switched to sabotage – unbelievable, but true – having organized explosions on the international gas pipelines of the Nord Stream, which run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they actually began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure. It is clear to everyone who benefits from this. Who benefits, he did, of course.
The US dictate is based on brute force, on fist law. Sometimes beautifully wrapped, sometimes without any wrapper, but the essence is the same – fist law. Hence the deployment and maintenance of hundreds of military bases in all corners of the world, the expansion of NATO, attempts to put together new military alliances such as AUKUS and the like. Active work is also underway to create a military-political link between Washington-Seoul-Tokyo. All those states that possess or seek to possess genuine strategic sovereignty and are capable of challenging Western hegemony are automatically included in the category of enemies.
It is on these principles that the US and NATO military doctrines are built, requiring nothing less than total domination. The Western elites present their neo-colonial plans in the same hypocritical way, even with a pretense of peacefulness, they talk about some kind of containment, and such a crafty word wanders from one strategy to another, but, in fact, means only one thing: undermining any sovereign centers of development.
We have already heard about the containment of Russia, China, Iran. I believe that other countries of Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, as well as current partners and allies of the United States, are next in line. We know: whatever they don’t like, they impose sanctions against their allies too – first against one bank, then against another; now against one company, now against another. This is the same practice, and will expand. They target everyone, including our closest neighbors – the CIS countries.
At the same time, the West has clearly and has long been wishful thinking. So, starting a sanctions blitzkrieg against Russia, they believed that they would once again be able to build the whole world on their command. But, as it turned out, such a rosy prospect excites far from everyone – perhaps complete political masochists and admirers of other non-traditional forms of international relations. Most states refuse to salute, and choose a reasonable path of cooperation with Russia.
The West clearly did not expect such recalcitrance from them. They just got used to acting according to a pattern, taking everything impudently, blackmail, bribery, intimidation, and convince themselves that these methods will work forever, as if they were ossified and frozen in the past.
Such self-confidence is a direct product not only of the notorious concept of one’s own exclusivity – although this, of course, is simply surprising – but also of a real hunger for information in the West. They drowned the truth in an ocean of myths, illusions and fakes, using extremely aggressive propaganda, lying recklessly, like Goebbels. The more incredible the lie, the faster they will believe in it – that’s how they act, according to this principle.
But people cannot be fed with printed dollars and euros. It is impossible to feed with these pieces of paper, and it is impossible to heat a home with the virtual, inflated capitalization of Western social networks. All this is important, what I’m talking about, but what was just said is no less important: you can’t feed anyone with paper money – you need food, and you won’t warm anyone with these inflated capitalizations – you need energy.
Therefore, politicians in the same Europe have to convince their fellow citizens to eat less, wash less often, and dress warmer at home. And those who begin to ask fair questions “actually, why is that so?” – are immediately declared enemies, extremists and radicals. They switch arrows to Russia, they say: here, they say, who is the source of all your troubles. They lie again.
What do I want to highlight in particular? There is every reason to believe that the Western elites are not going to look for constructive ways out of the global food and energy crisis, which arose through their fault, precisely through their fault, as a result of their many years of policy long before our special military operation in Ukraine, in the Donbass. They do not intend to solve the problems of injustice and inequality. There is a fear that they are ready to use other recipes that are familiar to them.
And here it is worth recalling that the West emerged from the contradictions of the early 20th century through the First World War. The profits from World War II allowed the United States to finally overcome the consequences of the Great Depression and become the largest economy in the world, to impose on the planet the power of the dollar as a global reserve currency. And the overdue crisis of the 80s – and in the 80s of the last century the crisis also aggravated – the West largely overcame by appropriating the legacy and resources of the Soviet Union that was collapsing and collapsed in the end. It is a fact.
Now, in order to extricate themselves from yet another tangle of contradictions, they need to break Russia and other states that choose the sovereign path of development at all costs in order to plunder other people’s wealth even more and at this expense close and plug their own holes. If this does not happen, I do not rule out that they will try to completely bring the system to a collapse, on which everything can be blamed, or, God forbid, they will decide to use the well-known formula “the war will write everything off”.
Russia understands its responsibility to the world community and will do everything to bring such hotheads to their senses.
It is clear that the current neo-colonial model is ultimately doomed. But I repeat that her real owners will cling to her to the end. They simply have nothing to offer the world, except for the preservation of the same system of robberies and racketeering.
In fact, they spit on the natural right of billions of people, most of humanity, to freedom and justice, to determine their own future on their own. Now they have completely moved to a radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family.
Let’s answer some very simple questions for ourselves. I now want to return to what I said, I want to address all the citizens of the country – not only to those colleagues who are in the hall – to all the citizens of Russia: do we want to have, here, in our country, in Russia, instead of mom and dad there was “parent number one”, “number two”, “number three” – are they completely crazy already there? Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed on children in our schools from the primary grades? To be drummed into them that there are supposedly other genders besides women and men, and to be offered a sex change operation? Do we want all this for our country and our children? For us, all this is unacceptable, we have a different, our own future.
I repeat, the dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. This is a challenge for everyone. Such a complete denial of man, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, the suppression of freedom acquires the features of a “reverse religion” – outright Satanism. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, denouncing the false prophets, says: By their fruits you will know them. And these poisonous fruits are already obvious to people – not only in our country, in all countries, including for many people and in the West itself.
The world has entered a period of revolutionary transformations, they are of a fundamental nature. New development centers are being formed, they represent the majority – the majority! – of the world community and are ready not only to declare their interests, but also to protect them, and see multipolarity as an opportunity to strengthen their sovereignty, which means to gain true freedom, a historical perspective, their right to independent, creative, original development, to a harmonious process.
All over the world, including in Europe and the United States, as I said, we have many like-minded people, and we feel, we see their support. A liberation, anti-colonial movement against unipolar hegemony is already developing within the most diverse countries and societies. His subjectivity will only grow. It is this force that will determine the future geopolitical reality.
Dear friends!
Today we are fighting for a just and free path, first of all for ourselves, for Russia, for diktat, despotism to remain forever in the past. I am convinced that countries and peoples understand that a policy based on the exclusivity of anyone, on the suppression of other cultures and peoples, is inherently criminal, that we must turn this shameful page. The collapse of Western hegemony that has begun is irreversible. And I repeat again: it will not be the same as before.
The battlefield to which fate and history have called us is the battlefield for our people, for great historical Russia. (Applause.) For great historical Russia, for future generations, for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We must protect them from enslavement, from monstrous experiments that are aimed at crippling their minds and souls.
Today we are fighting so that it would never occur to anyone that Russia, our people, our language, our culture can be taken and erased from history. Today, we need the consolidation of the entire society, and such cohesion can only be based on sovereignty, freedom, creation, and justice. Our values are humanity, mercy and compassion.
And I want to end my speech with the words of a true patriot Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin: “If I consider Russia my Motherland, then this means that I love in Russian, contemplate and think, sing and speak Russian; that I believe in the spiritual strength of the Russian people. His spirit is my spirit; his fate is my fate; his suffering is my grief; its flowering is my joy.”
Behind these words is a great spiritual choice, which for more than a thousand years of Russian statehood was followed by many generations of our ancestors. Today, we are making this choice, the citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the residents of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have made this choice. They made the choice to be with their people, to be with the Motherland, to live its destiny, to win together with it.
Behind us is the truth, behind us is Russia!
(Applause.)
@ Alan
October 2, 2022 at 14:56
Apparently it is necessary. How many times a day do you hear that Putin is a madman, insane, a cartoon villain willing to kill all in an “unprovoked war”?
I don’t detect adoration at all. What I detect is a strong respect for Putin’s thorough undressing of US foreign policy and its endless hypocrisy. As Mr. Pompeo stated “we lie, we cheat, we steal”. He left out we kill, we destroy, we smear, we torture, we manipulate, we occupy, we deceive, we imprison, we conceal, all wrapped in “freedom” and “democracy”. I should see this hypocrisy exposed daily by my MSM which is certainly not the case. We might all be in a better position to examine Russian government corruption if we were not daily drowning in our own.
Note that the Google translation above differs from the translation provided by the Kremlin itself at en dot kremlin dot ru.
The translation provided here is from kremlin dot ru.
Excellent speech for Putin’s Russian audience and a good one for his international audience! Some various, random comments I have are (in no particular sequence):
— It was SOoooo refreshing to read a speech that was more wide-scope and less simplistic than the
6th grade schoolyard rhetoric that I’m used to hearing from US politicians (though I have to admit
that it’s literally decades since I could bear to sit through more than 30 seconds of their speeches).
— My opinion is that on international relations Putin is ~90% correct vs Biden & friends are 90% wrong,
with a 10% margin of error, especially as regards the Ukraine situation.
— I don’t know how corrupt Putin is-or-isn’t, but from what I’ve read the Russian oligarchs (created
primarily during the Yeltsen era and now politically powerful & hard to dislodge) apparently have to
be courted as a political force in Russian politics, much like here in the US.
— There was a lot of nationalism and patriotism in the speech, which I’m normally uncomfortable with,
but IF you’re trying to give a stirring, inspirational speech for a national political audience, that’s
sadly necessary. (A dry, but more historically accurate academic speech won’t get you elected in
virtually any country. IF a people responded to that measured, rational approach, we wouldn’t be
having this conversation — we’d probably be ruled by Socrates’ philosopher-kings, for better or worse.)
— As a secular humanist, environmentalist, I was a bit saddened to hear him extolling population increase
in Russia as a goal (just as I’ve recently heard from China). Unfortunately that’s apparently the capitalist in
him coming out, and if you’re feeling threatened by a more militaristic, more populated country that’s
provoking wars, you have to think about a recruiting pool.). And I’m never excited to see religion
brought into political discussions as he did, but you do have to play to your audience.
— Predictably the speech seemed Russia-centric, sometimes a bit too much? The remark about the US
earning profits from WWII (and thus able to establish the USD as the reserve currency) doesn’t
exactly sound like what I understand was the case,,,, it was more that the US geared-up for the war
and put a lot of people to work, the conscription took men out of the employment pool, and the
government spending jump-started the US economy. Additionally, the US obviously didn’t experience
direct damage like Europe and Russia did, so it had a head-start after the war.
He had me until “Satanism.” Such extreme demonization, even of one’s enemies, is always wrong and leads to atrocities. It turns a geopolitical war into a religious war. Is that really necessary to rouse the public?
“Russia understands its responsibility to the world community and will do everything to bring such hotheads to their senses.
It is clear that the current neo-colonial model is ultimately doomed. But I repeat that her real owners will cling to her to the end. They simply have nothing to offer the world, except for the preservation of the same system of robberies and racketeering.
In fact, they spit on the natural right of billions of people, most of humanity, to freedom and justice, to determine their own future on their own. Now they have completely moved to a radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family.”
*
There are historical moments where unpleasant-but-necessary truths cannot any longer be suppressed/hidden, but sobriety is demanded..
Mr. Putin earns highest respect for providing humanity with the 1st step on the path toward a long-overdue worldwide sobriety, true justice and – for the profoundest benefit of all life on Earth – inevitable, eternal peace.
Thank you CN for putting Putin’s speech out there for us to see. He pretty much nailed it, although internal Russian history in the 20th century leaves a lot to be desired. With the collapse of the USSR the US was king this I believe led to the rise and rise of American exceptionalism. This arrogant, narcissistic outlook makes me want to spit blood, and the support of the UK and other western governments given to the US makes me want to throw up gallons of the stuff, serfdom of the lowest order.
If the situation in the Ukraine re: the lead up to the Ukraine conflict was transposed to the borders of the US with Russia influencing policy detrimental to the security of the US, the outcome would be ‘shock and awe’ on a devastating scale, as seen in other parts of the globe so more hypocrisy. So I wish those territories that have joined Russia well, and I hope they eventually find peace.
The US invades at will, maintains a global military presence and a global dollar existence. It’s time to remove support from a country and its fawning supporters that has used its hegemony over the past 30 + years to act like a bully, overthrowing governments, throwing around sanctions that have killed and damaged hundreds of thousands if not millions and destroying sovereign countries using NATO to implement US foreign policy. AS for the UN well ? Putin’s speech had substance backed up by history; if anyone wants to research and find the truth as opposed to blindly eating the western MSM. The quality visive Bidens/ Truss’s narrative is clear.
Whilst it’s important that CN publishes speeches by Russia’s President, the adoring comments here are frankly bizarre. Putin is a reactionary nationalist with fantasies of returning Russia to its status under the Czars (a development of the term ‘Caesar’) and who regards the Russia’s working-class revolution of 1917 as a disaster – as did the US and UK which responded by invading Russia to destroy the Bolsheviks. Ultimately, Putin wishes to cooperate with Western imperialism on a basis of equality, which as we know the West will not allow, and he has no interest at all in creating a Russia of the working class. The Russian capitalist state has all the exploitative features of the US, the UK and the rest of the neoliberal West. To praise Putin is to praise Joe Biden, Liz Truss and the other rotten leaders of the wealthy ruling elites.
Winston Churchill (1944): ”I have left the obvious, essential fact to this point, namely, that it is the Russian Armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the [Nazi] army.”
Brilliant, spot-on speech (except for the anti-trans detour). Thanks for posting it!
Russia has a demographic deficit resulting from economic disasters of the 90s. Sterilization of children via trans surgery is not in their interest. Plus, trans surgery and the lifelong maintenance required is expensive. Don’t think they have the same profit driven health care model that we do .
The U.S.A. is the cause of the troubles in our world, not China, not Russia, Iran, or Syria. Look to South and Central America to see what US colonial aggression has done, and is doing.
As a citizen of Canada I am ashamed of our capitulation and participation in the US global hegemony and domination. Fear grips me as that domination begins to crumble – where will we stand in a new MULTIPOLAR world?
I am surrounded by people who would express their hatred of my views. They are victims of the propaganda of mainstream media. I feel sorry for them, despite my fears.
Thank you CN and Putin for elucidating an alternative.
To watch a true world leader who exerts the confidence, the love for his country, the firm belief in his people, their history and the trajectory of their path, and the ability to show patience in the face of adversity, is something we have not seen since, F. Castro, Ho chi minh, Xi Jenping, Lola and Allende. They were statesmen who cared deeply about the welfare of their nations.
Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” comes to mind. That world history is moved
by forces above time and will not be subjugated to the Napoleon’s of
political plunder forever. Maybe Putin’s Russia is the “Third Rome”
calling for a revival of Christianity, and a new age?
I agree with comments above under the current circumstances.
Please don’t overlook however that after bringing up gender reassignments in the West, Putin is quoting Ivan Ilyin, who was anti-Bolshevik and proponent of “Christian Fascism”.
First please define fascism. Then please tell me what Christian fascism is.
I am often told by my family to stop talking whenever I speak about international relations. I am, I believe, viewed as a bit of a misguided crank who has been misinformed via conspiracy theories and the reading of outright lies / propaganda. My family truly love me, but when it comes to stating a view that is contrary to the mainstream media version of events, I get shouted down or asked to be quiet. It’s as if im deliberately choosing to press on a common bruise which rightly irritates and annoys, much like the annoyance caused by a mosquito repeatedly buzzing close to your ears.
As mentioned by another post, the ‘actual words’ uttered by people, who are, let’s say, more than not, subject to incessant negative publicity by many mainstream media reports, are rarely seen or heard here in the UK.
I wish my family would take the time to access the speeches of people like Putin, Labrov, and many others who describe a different world view. As also mentioned earlier, there were a few comments in the speech related to gender which I do not support, but I don’t have to support everything someone believes. His views on gender will not be supported by all in Russia, but that’s fine; I dont ascribe to the view that ‘you’re either with us or against us’. I dont support his views on gender and the traditional family, and no one person can purport to represent the views of an entire populace. However, I do choose, based on reading this and other articles on non-mainstream news channels, to believe in the
Worldview represented in this speech. My view is based on a lot of reading, including versions of events reported by the mainstream media outlets in the UK. As a rational human being, I have come to my own conclusions, which, I believe, are coherent and based on versions of events and opinions from people who tend to have first-hand experience of the machinations of the state, international relations or actual events. I can see the current Ukraine/Russia conflict could result in a lose-lose situation for the vast majority of the people in the world, and I hope my family and others, at least, start to accept that their current views on international relations are manufactured by a sophisticated propaganda operation machine which, by definition, expresses a biased version of history/current events. I grew up in 80s England, when the threat of nuclear war felt all to real, and we have arrived back at that point yet again because of the decisions of people who profess to represent the views of the people they were elected to represent. A growing number of people are becoming all to aware that these ‘leaders’ do not represent their worldview and that the belief in public participation in representative democracy is, in fact, another manufactured illusion.
Thank-you Consortium News, and your contributors, for providing me with a branch to hold on to, which helps me stay grounded and not be swept away by the constant and overwhelming flow of manufactured news. Robert Parry would be proud.
Honestly was not expecting at all that short bit about Western gender identity politics corrupting Russian society. Surely Putin could have leaned into more material attacks on Russian society?
Perhaps he thinks it is just typical of the values the West is upholding. Not liberty of speech (ask Ursula about that in the EU!) or freedom from violence, coercion, imprisonment for disagreeing. The provision of fair laws, decent education, health care, education, housing (horror-socialism!) are anathema for the USA and are reducing in USA “allies”. They are certainly not a priority for the big-spending “defense” funding by all the “colonialist” powers.
In my considered opinion, you are not seeing the larger implications of this covertly being-forced-upon-us ideology, nor the intentions of certain ‘movers and shakers’ to not only further divide the people of the West, but to corrode age-old values that matter immensely to social cohesion going back to antiquity. The breakdown (corruption/perversion) of the traditional family as the requisite building block of society is something the Russians are keenly aware of from the days of the USSR. Back when children—but not only children—were enjoined to rat on their own parents to the ‘authorities.’ Something which has resurfaced in Western ‘democracies.’
Here we have (with sex change operations) a classic study of the questions presented by noveau-technology in the hands of little more than primates. With the long term consequences of such irremediable actions once taken presenting a host of unknown consequences that will—if human experience dictates—last far into the future. I think you would understand these implications better if you knew of the billionaires promoting this foisted faux-awakening for self-identity’s sake. The profits that have flown into the Medical/Pharma/Insurance complex of this money-maker are truly quite astounding. And growing. Its political power enough to move the masses (albeit constituting an infinitesimal minority) has been and is yet a force to be reckoned with. It contains the seeds of socio-political disruption on a large scale. Mr Putin and many other conservative Orthodox politicians/leaders recognize this in its deeper implications.
He’s Orthodox Christian Afdal, so for him gender is a God-given
truth and human acceptance of it a basic obedience to the will
God. Yes, it’s hard for we American liberals to see this, and Putin,
in my view, was very cruel and corrupt to put the Russian rock
group “Pussy Riot” in jail for their music disparaging Russian Orthodoxy.
But then he’s keeping Ed Snowden out of the clutches of the CIA.
Too bad Julian Assange wasn’t under Putin’s protection.
Statesman vs. Politician
No doubt about it, Russia’s President Putin rocks statesmanship. Putin is a revered, competent public speaker. A mentally & physically fit President who imagines, peace, i.e., “War is over. IF, you want it,“
i.e., “We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately cease fire, all hostilities, the war that it unleashed back in 2014, and return to the negotiating table. We are ready for this, it has been said more than once. But we will not discuss the choice of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, it has been made, Russia will not betray it. And today’s Kiev authorities should treat this free will of the people with respect, and nothing else. This is the only way to peace.”
OWN IT. DO IT. DONE. “I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that everyone remembers this: people living in Lugansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye become our citizens forever.”
AND, The Divided $tates of Corporate America’s GOT, a Politician aka Political Corpse posing as POTUS masquerading as Human. Indeed, “THE FRUIT,” NATO, POTUS-V.P., their Board of Executioners, the $enate and the House of Disrepute, “IS ROTTEN!!!”
“In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, denouncing the false prophets, says: By their fruits you will know them. And these poisonous fruits are already obvious to people – not only in our country, in all countries, including for many people and in the West itself.”
“They do NOT intend to solve the problems of injustice and inequality. Their is a fear that they are are ready to use other recipes that are familiar to them.”
FOR EXAMPLE, “AIMING TO punish like a Bat Out Of Intel Hell any journalist, publisher or whistleblower revealing its inner machinations.
This is where we stand now. And once again, we reach the end – though not the endgame. There’s still no moral to this revamped fable. We continue to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Our only, slim hope is that a bunch of Hollow Men obsessed by the Second Coming won’t turn Cold War 2.0 into Armageddon.” (PEPE ESCOBAR)
Good on CN for publishing this! Well done. The usual American media will tell its readers what to think about the latest ‘bad guy’, while hiding from their readers what the latest ‘bad guy’ actually said — the better to completely distort everything.
It is difficult to find much in this speech with which to disagree. His history of the West; its colonial violence; its orientation to its own hegemony and profit (the rest of the world be damned); the degradation of the U.S.’s alleged partners, who indeed are clearly nothing but US-occupied vassals (note his mention of how the NSA listened in on Merkel’s private phone conversations, which lead to zero consequences: there are never any consequences, that is what proves they are vassals). His account of whose interests were served by blowing up international energy infrastructure of vital importance to Germany and Europe (and Russia). Perhaps I am missing something. What did he say that is inaccurate?
Watch this documentary by Alexei Navalny on Putin’s greed, graft, and deep corruption with his complicit Oligarchs: hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMxqTae75Fs
It is entirely possible to hold two opposing conclusions to Putin’s speech: 1.) There is truth to much of it. But, 2.) The Messenger is as corrupt — even more so — than the extensive peoples/countries he so stridently condemns. Putin is the world’s greatest hypocrite, and very likely a psychopath by the DSM definition.
Your public ignorance is palpable. I can feel its ill wind all the way from Alaska.
I’ll bet you can see Russia from there, too.
A third is possible. He could be very corrupt, but far less so than the people he criticizes.
A tape filmed by the Federal Security Service (FSB) sometime in 2012 allegedly shows a meeting between Vladimir Ashurkov and an employee of the British Embassy in Moscow. Ashurkov is the executive director of the FBK, Alexey Navalny’s anti-corruption organization.
The person he met at a Moscow cafe was identified as James William Thomas Ford, then Second Secretary for political affairs of the UK embassy in Russia. The FSB suspected he was an MI6 agent working under diplomatic cover. The discussion presents problematic optics for Navalny and the FBK team, and appears to support the Russian government’s claim that they deserve to be considered foreign agents. The FBK’s stated goal is to expose alleged cases of corruption in Russia. Its work is ultimately tied to Navalny’s aims of gaining political power.They discussed ways of raising money to fight Putin and said the donors would get rccompensed many times over. Ashurkov outlined the organization’s activities as “mass protests, civil initiatives, propaganda, establishing contacts, etc.
This video is no longer available in your country. More western censorship???
There is no virtue in attacking the messenger instead of the message.
There is no virtue in the messenger.
Anatoly Levin-Utkin, Anna Politkovskaya, Armen Aramyan, Vladislav Yesypenko, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Boris Nemtsov, Alexei Navalny, Boris Berezovsky, Sergei Yushenkov, Stanislav Markelov, Natalia Estemirova, Alexander Litvinenko, and Sergei Magnitsky were unavailable for comment at the time this went to Press.
This is not Putin’s first gem rated speech. Our country has not had a leader with a fraction of his ability for veracity since JFK.
yes that is so, the world has not had a leader like him and JFK!
I concur, not only his veracity but his courage, JFK turning his back on the MIC recommending bombing Cuba and turned instead to Peace.
…which, of course, is why he was murdered in the motorcade. Putin doesn’t seem to have a deathwish and it appears his military is loyal to him. What happened to Kennedy was no other than a coup. It’s hard to figure how much he knew, but my hunch is that he did know.
This is a sobering speech. Somehow Russia may make clear the reality the world is facing, that 86%
, Or will it take civil war here as trumpers gun for, killing each other as we did in our last civil war, learning nothing at all then and again.
We need to hear now how we appear to the majority of the world.
Many suffer from the Stockholm syndrome, captivated by US Power.
Spoken like a true statesman, as opposed to the incoherent ramblings of the POTUS.
never ending colonial west
A good speech by a strong president of a large country that America is trying to destroy, and he is fighting for his people and for his Russia.
Bravo!!! Thank you V. Putin.
Bless Russia and let’s hope they are able to initiate the process of giving back to the citizens of the west their liberty and freedom from the corruption and oppression of our ‘leaders’.
He is absolutely 100% correct, he is far smarter than the imbeciles that occupy US offices. Washington in all its forms uses the same life reducing, wealth reducing and health reducing tactics against Americans, US bureaucrats and politicians hate the American people.
Putin, like all politicians and national leaders, presents his country scrubbed clean of any unsightly historical crimes or moral catastrophes – unless the blame is squarely on a political other. But, dismissing the cartoonish, squeaky-clean, national image and some truly bizarre comments about gender identity, LGBTQ, and children’s education that could be verbatim from a Ron Desantis speech, the man is largely spot on. The picture of the West presented by the Russian leader is factual and appropriately damning. The United States’ parasitic relationship with the world is glaringly apparent to most people outside it’s borders. The United States is perceived by most of the world as a global threat – which is shocking only to those residing in the American Bubble.
Wonderful, forthright and earnest remarks from a genuine head of state.
Let’s not forget that Putin heads a nation that provides universal healthcare coverage for every single citizen, has very lengthy full-paid maternity leave for all mothers, subsidized housing for tens of millions of Russian citizens, doesn’t see a large segment of its population dying in debt bondage due to student loans, and even has a bit of high-speed transit rail for its citizens to enjoy. And oh yeah, under Putin’s leadership Russia has seen a drastic decline in poverty levels, unemployment, and deaths of despair since the lost decade of the Yeltsin years in the 1990s when int’l parasitic finance was allowed to exploit and rob that country blind.
You are absolutely right in your key points complementing the excellent contents of Putin’s speech. Russia and China have set a more positive and constructive track record for their own peoples and the world especially in the recent nearly half a century. Even the destructive mode Russia has been forced to adopt in Ukraine in current times only comes after 8 years of patiently waiting for the West and its theatrical stooges there to reform themselves but, unfortunately, to no avail. Furthermore, many of Russia’s socio-economic accomplishments that you have outlined above have yet to be even vaguely mirrored in not just the “collective West”, as Putin may put it, but also in the brainlessly apeing “West” in the Rest of the World ! In this context, Putin quite rightly nailed the many ruling elites out there who are nothing but closet lapdogs of neo-colonialism.
I’m just hearing and seeing far more veracity from Putin than any western leader…I know the truth when I hear it.