[minor clarifications and bolded sections by Doug]
President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Dear members of State Duma, Senators, dear Citizens of Russian Federation, in today’s address, I’m giving this state address in a very difficult context, in a very difficult time. There are cardinal major changes in the world. There are historic changes that determine the future of our country and our people. Every one of us has a great responsibility. About a year ago in order to protect our people on our historic land, in order to ensure security, in order to liquidate the threat that appeared from the Kyiv regime.
After the [US] military coup in 2014 [in Ukraine], we decided to conduct a special military operation [in Crimea]. Step-by-step we will continue to resolve the objectives that before us. Starting from 2014, Donbas has been fighting to defend its right to live on its territory and speak its own language. They were fighting and not giving up in the conditions of a blockade and constant shelling. And in the context of complete hatred from the Kyiv regime, they waited and they believed that the Russia would come to their help.
(06:43)
You know this very well, that we
did everything possible. Indeed, everything possible in order to
resolve this problem in a peaceful way. We were patient in our
negotiations to come out of this horrible conflict. However, behind our
backs, a completely different scenario was being prepared. The
assurances from the Western leaders to ensure peace in Donbas turned out
to be a lie. They were just dragging time and they were trying to close
their eyes to the political killings and repressions of the Kyiv regime
and abuse of religion and terrorist acts in Donbas. In Western
academies and training centers they were training nationalists units and
supplying weapons. I would like to emphasize that it was before the
special military operation they were negotiating the supply of heavy
military equipment and planes and anti-aircraft defense systems. And
they were also publicly talking about supply of nuclear weapons.
(08:09)
NATO
and Western countries were setting their military bases on our borders
and biological laboratories, and they were training on the future
theater of military actions. And today they recognize this. They
publicly recognize this without shying away. They are talking about
Minsk Agreements and Normandy Agreement to be just a show, a spectacle.
And when Russia, I would like to emphasize, when Russia sincerely tried
to find a peaceful solution, they were playing with lives of people and
they were playing a dirty game. And this repulsive lie
and their behavior, two-face behavior was seen in Yugoslavia, in Iraq,
Syria, and they will not be able to wash away that shame ever of
centuries of colonialism and dictatorship. They’re used to this idea
that they could do anything, that it turns out that they are treating
their own people in this way. They also deceive their own people by
telling them stories about peaceful agreements in Donbas. And it’s just
total and unprincipled lies [The West is truly the empire of lies. He’s exactly right].
(09:59)
We
have been insisting on protecting our own interests and also that
protecting the position that there should not be a situation in the
world where there are civilized countries in the rest of the world. We
were very open and we were sincerely open for a dialogue with the West,
and we were insisting on Europe and the rest of the world to have an
equal system of defense and ecosystem of security. We were proposing to
our partners this idea, and in response we were getting dishonest
answers. But there were also specific actions, expansion
of NATO to our borders, creation of new anti-rocket defense systems in
Europe, and developing military contingents on the borders of Russia.
And I’d like to emphasize that no other country in the world has as many
foreign military bases as the United States. They have hundreds,
hundreds of military bases around the world.
(11:20)
The
whole planet is dotted with their bases. And we saw them exit
fundamental agreements on limiting rockets of medium to long range. And
they were exiting other agreements supporting peace in the world. They
were doing it for a reason. And in December 2021, we
officially directed to the U.S. and to Europe our request for guarantees
for security. However, we received a direct refusal to our offers and
it became clear that the reaction was demonstrated and the threat was
growing. And we had no doubt that by February 2022, everything was
prepared for a punitive action in Donbas, where Kyiv regime provided
artillery and aviation and other weapons to attack Donbas back in 2014.
In 2015, they attempted again to directly attack Donbas. They continued
shelling, terror in relation to citizens. All of this was
completely against the documents that were accepted by the United
Nations Security Council. I would like to repeat. They started the war and we used the force in order to stop it.
(13:22)
Those
who planned a new attack on Donetsk, on Donbas, on Lugansk, they
clearly understood that the next objective is strike against Sevastopol
and Crimea. We understood this and they are again in Kyiv talking
directly about their plans. And we knew that already. We protect people
and protect their homes. And the objectives of the West is infinite power. They spent $150 billion to support militarily Kyiv regime.
To compare this, to put this into perspective, in 2021, 2022, big seven
countries provided to the poorest countries only 60 billion aid. Also,
and in exchange for that 60 billion, they require complete submission to
their will.
(14:36)
With
this, the flow of money to finance the war is not stopping. And they
continue supplying means to provide coups in other countries. And at the
recent security conference, there was an endless flow of accusations
against Russia. And this was done, it
seems, in order for everyone to forget that over the last 10 years, it
was the West who opened, who released the genie from the bottle as a
result of wars. We did not come up with these figures. These figures are provided by them. As a result of wars that were started by United States since 2021, about 900,000 people died and millions became refugees.
(15:35)
And
they’re trying to delete this from the memory of people. They’re trying
to pretend this did not happen, but nobody forgot that. The people’s
tragedy is not important to them. And they’re betting trillions,
trillions of dollars, and they are trying to continue robbing everyone
else and they’re covering themselves with words of democracy and values.
They are trying to label other countries and publicly
insult them. And they’re creating that image of enemy within their own
countries in order to divert attention from corruption scandals within
their own countries. They are diverting attention from the growing
social economic problems. I would like to remind you that in 1930s,
Western countries opened the path for Nazi Germany to develop. And in
this century, they did this to Ukraine. And anyone who
knows history and knows that this goes back to the 19th century
Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and this was, they only had the single goal
to separate these territories from their historic ties with our country.
(17:06)
There’s
nothing new. Everything is repeating. History keeps repeating. They
have supported the coup in 2014. And this was a bloody coup, anti-state,
anti-constitution coup. And as if nothing had happened, and they even
told us how much money they spent on it. The ideological basis for this
was Russophobia. And it’s a shame to even say that one of
the units of the Ukrainian Army was given a name, Edelweiss. Edelweiss
is a name of a Nazi German unit, and they have very popular chevrons on
their uniform with the German Nazi insignia. And they’ve got very marked
signs on their tanks. And the neo-Nazis are not even
hiding who they inherited their history from. And we see that those in
power choose to close their eyes on this. Why? Because they don’t give a
damn. Because they are trying to fight us. They’re trying to fight
Russia. And that means they want to use anything. They want to use
everyone, terrorist, Nazis, even devil himself, to use it as weapon
against Russia. The project anti-Russia is a revolutionist policy against our country.
(19:07)
Back
in the ’30s of last century and today, it’s the same idea to direct
aggression to the east, to start the war in Europe using other people’s
tools. And we said that we’re not fighting in Ukraine. We said that the
Ukrainian people have become a hostages of their Western masters who
occupied this country in political, in economic and military sense. Of
decades, they were destroying Ukrainian industry and robbing the
country. And as a consequence of this, it became the poverty and social
division grew. And this was the material for the military actions. And
of course, they turned these people into canon fodder. And this is a sad
reality, but it’s a fact.
(20:10)
The
responsibility for starting the conflict, for growing number of victims
lies totally with the West and with Kyiv regime for whom Ukrainian
people are not their own, effectively. This regime is not serving their
national interests. They’re serving interests of foreign powers. The
Ukraine is now like a training ground for them. I’m not going to talk
about the plans of Western powers to increase military aid. Everyone
knows about this. But one thing is very clear to everyone. The greater
the range of these systems, the further away we will be forced to move
the threat from our borders.
(21:09)
The
elites of the West are not hiding their goals. They are, as they say,
trying to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. What does that mean to
us? That means they want to end with Russia. They want to turn a local
conflict into a phase of global conflict. This is how we understand
this. And we will react in an appropriate way. Because in
this case, we’re talking about existence of our country. They also have
to take into account that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the
battlefield. So they increase their information attacks and of course
they are targeting our young generation. And of course they keep lying
here. They’re twisting historic facts. They’re going against our
culture, against our religious organizations.
(22:20)
Look
at what they’ve done to their own people. They’re destroying family,
national identity, they are abusing their children. Even pedophilia is
announced as a normal thing in the West. And they’re recognizing same
sex marriages. That’s fine that they’re adults. They’ve got the right to
live their life. And we always, we’re very tolerant about this in
Russian. Nobody is trying to enter private lives of people, and we’re
not going to do this. However, we need to tell them, but look at the
scriptures of any religion in the world. Everything is said in there.
And one of the things is that family is a union of a man and a woman.
(23:21)
But
even the sacred texts are subjected to doubt. Anglican Church is
planning to consider the idea of a gender-neutral God. What can you say
here? Millions of people in the West understand that they are being led
to spiritual destruction. Elites are going crazy and this cannot be
cured it seems. But our duty is to protect our children. And we will do
this. We will protect our children from degradation. It’s obvious that
the West will continue trying to destabilize our society. They’ll be
using our traitors, who’ve been throughout the ages, have the same
attitude to their own people, hatred for their own nation. And this was
the case forever.
(24:42)
They
are attempting terrorist attacks that are aimed at destabilizing our
society. But we will never be similar to Western regimes and to Kyiv
regime who are used to witch hunting. Were not going to hunt those who
betrayed the motherland. Let them live with this. They have to live with
it. What’s important is that citizens of Russia have to give them a
moral valuation. We need to be proud that we are a multicultural nation
and majority of our people have a principle position in relation to the
special military operation. They understand the meaning of it. They
supported our actions in Donbas and real patriotism was seen in this
support. And historically, this has always been a feature of our nation.
(25:59)
Everyone
understands the connection of their personal life to the life of their
motherland. Dear friends, I’d like to thank everyone, all people of
Russia for decisiveness and for their heroic attitude. I’d like to thank
our offices of Navy and Army and all the forces, to the fighters of
Donbas and Lugansk region, to volunteers who are fighting in different
areas, and BARS as well. I apologize that I will not be able to name
everyone. When I was preparing this speech, there was a long, long list
of heroic units, military units. I will not be able to name all of them.
I did not want to offend anyone by not naming them.
(27:02)
I
would like to bow down to relatives and wives and parents and wives and
families and doctors and instructors, nurses who are saving the
wounded. To the railroad workers, construction workers who are creating
the defense structures and also building homes, and engineers of defense
factories who are working several shifts now, to agricultural workers
who are supplying constant stream of food and products. I would like to
thank teachers who are sincerely taking care of the new generation of
Russians, especially those who are working in very difficult conditions
near
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Near to the frontline, all the cultural figures who come to the frontline, who come to the hospitals to support them, to journalists. First of all, military journalists who are risking their lives in order to tell the truth to the whole world have representatives of traditional religions who are supporting the military entrepreneurs, government officials, everyone who is fulfilling their national and human duty. I would like to express special gratitude to citizens of Lugansk and Donetsk Republics and Zaporozhye region. You yourselves determined your future. You made your choice despite the threats of terror the Nazis, even though next to you there were military actions taking place and you made the choice to be together with Russia, to be together with your motherland. We have started and we will continue to grow. I’d like to emphasize that this reaction of our audience addressed to the citizens of Donetsk and Lugansk and Zaporozhye regions. We bow down to you. We began and we will continue our program of social restoration of these territories, and the idea is to bring back the factories and the industry and we will create access to our internal sea. Now, as of sea, we will create the new highway to Crimea and connect it to the rest of Russia. And all regions of Russia are providing direct support to cities and towns of Donetsk and Lugansk and other regions, and they’re doing it as real brothers and sisters. Today we’re together again, and that means we’re stronger again, and that means we’re going to do everything in order to bring our length back to peace and to ensure security.
(31:11)
It
is for this, for our ancestors, for the future of our children and
grandchildren in order to restore historic justice. This is what our
fighters are fighting for and our heroes are fighting for. I would like
to respect the memory of all fighters who died in military action and
all civilians who died in this military action. Thank you. We understand
that it is very hard for wives and daughters and sons of our military
personnel. They have brought up very distant defenders just like our
ancestors were defending Donbas. And they have got a very strong spirit
and our duty is to support those families who lost loved ones and help
them bring up their children. The family of every member of the special
military operation needs to be surrounded with care and attention and we
need to respond to their needs very, very quickly. I propose to create a
special state fund whose objective would be personal help to the
families and veterans of special military operation and those who died
in action. This fund will coordinate social, medical, and psychological
support, they will provide help in educational sport, in
entrepreneurship, in providing new professions and professional
development, and also long-term home care for all those who are in need
of it. And I’m requesting the government and the committee on social
affairs together with regions to resolve all organizational aspects of
this within the shortest possible time. And also provide these services
without any bureaucracy through a one window system. Every family, I
emphasize, every family of a fallen soldier and every veteran of the
action has to have a personal contact in this fund who will, in real
time, deal with current issues. I’d like to point out that the structure
of this fund has to be deployed by the end of this year. We already
have measures of supporting the veterans of the great patriotic war and
the veterans of other local conflicts. And we need to work on this and
improve this.
(35:08)
I’d
like to emphasize that creation of this special fund does not alleviate
other structures of their responsibility. I’m expecting from all
municipalities, all bodies to continue providing help to all the
veterans. And we have representatives of regions who constantly are in
contact with veterans, who constantly support families who go to the
frontline to support the troops. We are talking about the supply, about
payments and benefits in case they’re wounded and local governors
addressing me and reporting to me on the result of their work. And
they’re saying that there are certain issues that are not resolved yet
and we need to work on those. We all understand very well that the needs
of the special military operation are connected to great burden,
psychological, physiological, financial. All participants of the special
military operation especially, and including the volunteers, they need
to have 14 days of rest every year, in addition to the travel time.
(37:03)
Dear
colleagues, we have an approved plan of creation of a military force
for the 2023, 2025, and we are working on it and correcting it as we go.
And I’d like to emphasize the further steps on strengthening our navy
and army. We have to rely in these steps, on our real military
experience. This is extremely important. This is invaluable. For
example, the level supply and readiness of our nuclear military forces
is in the region of 91%. Taking into account the experience that we
received, we have to achieve that level of supply for all other areas of
army and navy. Offices and sergeants who demonstrates on themselves to
be decisive and clever and brave, they should be forwarded to the
military academies and they should become a very powerful training
reserve. And they have to become people in demand, both in the military
and in the civil sector. We need to understand that we need to value
their contribution to the defense of our motherland.
(38:52)
We
will continue implementing the latest technologies which will improve
the quality of our army. These developments and these types of equipment
and weapons are already there, some of them are exceeding the
parameters of western equipment. And our objective is to create a mass
production of these weapons using our own industrial and scientific base
using state contracts and involving small and medium enterprise. We
have scientific teams, engineering teams, and we have more and more of
younger people, qualified people in these teams and we have very long
traditions of weapon production and weapon manufacturing. And everything
needs to be done for the victory. We need to provide guarantees for
employees and we are talking about the social benefits and also
salaries. And I’m proposing to provide special program for housing. And
the rent in this housing would be significantly lower than the market
rent and the difference will be covered by the state. That’s for the
employees of the defense sector. We will work on the details of this
program and we will immediately start building this housing, especially
in the cities which are our military and engineering centers.
(40:52)
Dear
colleagues, as I mentioned, the west has begun not just the military
and information, but also an economic aggression, but they have not
achieved success in either of these areas and they won’t achieve success
there. Moreover, the initiators of the sanctions are punishing
themselves. They provoked a growth of prices in their own countries,
closures of factories, collapse of energy sector. They’re telling their
citizens that it’s the Russians who are to blame and they’ve used
different tools. They try to break commercial connections with our
companies, they try to restrict our expert. And the theft, I can’t name
it any other way, theft of our currency reserves and also attacks on our
infrastructure. I’d like to emphasize that all sanctions are just a
means, but the objective, as the West says, and I say directly, to force
our citizens to suffer. This is their humanistic approach. They are
trying to destabilize our society from inside, but their attempts were
not justified and were not successful.
(42:40)
And
thanks to joint work of our government, of the Bank of Russia, of the
subjects of the Russian Federation of Working People, we were able to
ensure stability of economic situation. We preserved employment, we
supported our financial system, business people who are investing in the
development of their business and therefore in the development of the
country. We’ve launched a package of measures to support the economy
totalling in the region of three trillion rubles. I’d like to point out
that this is not a money printing policy. All of that is based on market
principles. At the end of 2022, the GDP is reduced. Yesterday that
information was published and I remember they were saying that our
economy will drop 20, 25% and I was saying 2.9 and then later we were
saying GDP reduced by 2.2%. And I’d like to remind you that in February,
March, they were forecasting total collapse. Russian business has
restricted its logistics and has established connections with
predictable partners and there are many of those in the world, majority
of them in the world. And in terms of international payments, the volume
of payments has increased.
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