Vladimir Putin's big press conference is a fixed date in the Russian President's annual plan.
For the 17th time, Putin responded to questions from selected media representatives on Thursday.
Hundreds of them were gathered in an event center at the Kremlin;
three negative PCR tests were compulsory.
Friedrich Schmidt
Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.
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On none of the numerous topics did Putin speak as furiously as when he looked at Ukraine and the West, in line with the concerns there, that Russia's troops concentrated on the border and in the annexed Ukrainian Crimea could attack. Reports of Russian maneuvers are piling up. According to the Ministry of Defense, more than 1200 paratroopers are practicing “the rapid conquest of an area” in the Crimea and in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar.
Putin focused on the “security guarantees” demanded by Moscow, for which the United States and NATO were presented with draft treaties last week.
Among other things, they provide for the abandonment of any future expansion and any activities of the alliance in the post-Soviet space, as well as a buffer zone.
In the West, this is criticized as an attack on the sovereignty of several states and an attempt to reverse the end of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union.
Talks with Washington in early January
Putin said, however, that there has been “an overall positive reaction” to the proposals and announced that first talks between representatives of Russia and America should take place in Geneva in early January. American President Joe Biden Putin promised negotiations on December 7th on a video link in order to defuse tensions in Ukraine. Russia's president is now keen to keep up the pressure on opponents in Kiev and in the west.
"They tell us: war, war, war," Putin said of his Western counterparts.
The impression arises that Kiev is possibly planning a new “military operation” against the pro-Russian “People's Republics” in Donbass “and we are warned in advance: Don't interfere, do not protect these people, and if you interfere and protect them, some will come new sanctions. ”But Russia must react to appropriate actions.
Putin speculates on Ukrainian military operation
The government in Kiev called Putin a “regime” and accused President Volodymyr Zelenskyi of being under the influence of “radical elements”. Ukrainian forces who wanted to work towards "good neighborly relations" with Russia would be "destroyed". Zelenskyj has long sought a meeting with Putin on Donbass, but the Kremlin refuses. In addition, since the democratically elected president took office in 2019, Russia has naturalized hundreds of thousands of residents of the “People's Republics”.
Andrei Kortunow of the Russian Council for International Affairs, a government-affiliated think tank, sees the Kremlin's concerns about the “changed potential” of the Ukrainian army behind the complaints about an impending Ukrainian “military offensive”. This has become much stronger compared to the time of the fighting in 2014 and 2015, says Kortunow of the FAZ and points to the delivery of the American Javelin anti-tank missiles, which President Barack Obama had waived seven years ago, but which were under his successor Donald Trump as well as the purchase and use of Turkish drones. Kortunov believes Russian intervention in Donbass is conceivable if the leaderships of the “People's Republics” should come into serious trouble.
However, the Russian side is currently also citing scenarios for Ukrainian “provocations”, some with American participation, which is fueling fears that Moscow could construct a pretext for intervention.
Putin now endeavored to turn the western audience - represented by journalists - against the neighboring country.
For example, he gave Ukraine, which no longer sources gas for its own use directly from Russia, to be partly to blame for the current gas prices: he had "every reason to assume" that gas from Germany would be delivered to Ukraine via Poland, which caused prices to reach record highs drift.