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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia mentioned the West confronted the prospect of nuclear battle if it intervened extra straight within the warfare in Ukraine, utilizing an annual speech to the nation on Thursday to escalate his threats in opposition to Europe and the US.
Mr. Putin mentioned NATO international locations that have been serving to Ukraine strike Russian territory or would possibly contemplate sending their very own troops “should, in the long run, perceive” that “all this really threatens a battle with using nuclear weapons, and subsequently the destruction of civilization.”
“We even have weapons that may strike targets on their territory,” Mr. Putin mentioned. “Do they not perceive this?”
The Russian chief alluded to feedback by President Emmanuel Macron of France this week elevating the opportunity of sending troops from NATO international locations to Ukraine, a situation the Kremlin mentioned would result in the “inevitability” of a direct battle between Russia and the Western alliance.
America and different Western governments have largely tried to distance themselves from Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, and Mr. Macron’s remarks about the opportunity of Western troops being despatched to Ukraine drew fast rebukes from different Western officers, who’ve dominated out such deployments.
Mr. Putin, nevertheless, considers Russian-occupied Ukraine to be Russian territory, and he seized on Mr. Macron’s remarks to amplify his menace. “We bear in mind the destiny of those that as soon as despatched their contingents to the territory of our nation,” Mr. Putin mentioned, an obvious reference to the invasions of Hitler and Napoleon. “However now the implications for potential interventionists shall be far more tragic.”
Mr. Putin’s threats on Thursday got here within the opening minutes of his annual state-of-the-nation speech, a keystone occasion within the Kremlin calendar by which the president declares his plans and priorities in a televised handle to a whole lot of officers, lawmakers and different members of Russia’s ruling elite.
This yr, the speech took on added significance due to Russia’s presidential elections, scheduled for March 15-17, by which Mr. Putin is operating for one more six-year time period. He’s assured of profitable, however the Kremlin has mounted a concerted publicity marketing campaign forward of the vote, looking for to make use of it as a stamp of public approval for Mr. Putin’s rule, and by extension, his warfare.
The speech got here at a geopolitically delicate time: Greater than two years into the warfare, Russia has taken the initiative on the battlefield, army assist is stalled within the U.S. Congress, and Western governments are at odds over how finest to assist Ukraine.
At dwelling, Mr. Putin is exhibiting no signal of slowing his crackdown on the opposition, which suffered a crushing blow with the demise of its imprisoned chief, Aleksei A. Navalny.
“Russia’s political system is without doubt one of the foundations of the nation’s sovereignty,” Mr. Putin mentioned in his speech, suggesting he would proceed to stifle what he casts as Western-organized dissent. “We is not going to let anybody intrude in our home affairs.”
Mr. Putin has repeatedly made veiled nuclear threats in opposition to the West since he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years in the past, looking for to leverage Russia’s huge nuclear arsenal to discourage Europe and the US from supporting Ukraine.
He had appeared to dial down that rhetoric prior to now yr. However on Thursday, he returned to it, coupling his threats with a declare that he was able to resume arms-control negotiations with the US — however solely, he advised, if Washington was prepared to debate the warfare in Ukraine as effectively.
“Russia is prepared for a dialogue with the US on issues of strategic stability,” Mr. Putin mentioned, a reference to arms-control talks with Washington that had been briefly underway earlier than Russia’s invasion.
In an obvious reference to Ukraine, Mr. Putin added: “This should, naturally, be finished solely as a single complicated, together with all these facets that have an effect on the safety of our nation.”
Fyodor Lukyanov, a Moscow-based foreign-policy professional near the Kremlin, mentioned Mr. Putin’s warnings have been in all probability prompted by Mr. Macron’s comment earlier within the week that “nothing must be dominated out” concerning the opportunity of a NATO nation sending troops to Ukraine.
Extra broadly, he added, Mr. Putin was responding to Western pledges to offer extra highly effective arms to Ukraine as Russia’s battlefield benefit grows — together with sending Kyiv missiles that would attain deeper inside Russian territory.
“Macron will not be the one one who’s beginning to say {that a} Russian victory can’t be accepted,” Mr. Lukyanov mentioned. “Within the West, they’re not speaking a couple of peace deal — they’re speaking about not letting Russia succeed.”
Mr. Putin’s objective, he mentioned, was to keep away from extra direct Western involvement within the warfare and to “obtain negotiations on phrases acceptable to Russia.” In Thursday’s speech, Mr. Putin signaled that he needed these negotiations to embody not simply the way forward for Ukraine but additionally “equal and indivisible safety in Eurasia.”
Mr. Putin beforehand sought a sweeping safety association with NATO in late 2021, weeks earlier than he launched his full-scale invasion. On the time, Western officers dismissed Russia’s proposal as a nonstarter, as a result of it could have codified a Russian sphere of affect throughout the previous Soviet Union.
The White Home, for its half, has rebuffed Mr. Putin’s efforts to place the US on the heart of any negotiations concerning the warfare in Ukraine. American officers have mentioned that the US has not and won’t negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.
Mr. Putin’s threats in opposition to the West took up just a few minutes of a speech that lasted greater than two hours. A lot of the handle targeted on bread-and-butter home points like highways, well being care, power infrastructure and schooling.
However Mr. Putin framed all these home priorities as being contingent on the success of his invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin refers to because the “particular army operation.” He supplied no new particulars on the warfare’s targets or the way it would possibly finish, saying solely that Russia aimed to “root out Nazism” — a reference to his frequent, false claims about Ukraine being run by “Nazis.”
“I’ll underline a very powerful factor,” Mr. Putin mentioned on the finish of his speech. “The success of all of the focused plans at present relies upon straight on our troopers, officers, volunteers — all of the army personnel combating proper now on the entrance.”
It was a sign that Mr. Putin intends to make use of his March re-election to painting Russia as dedicated to the warfare, with the overwhelming majority of the general public behind it. Mr. Putin described the warfare’s troopers and supporters as Russia’s “true elite,” and unveiled a coaching program and different measures meant to raise veterans to administration positions in civilian life in areas like authorities, schooling and enterprise.
With simply extra two weeks to go till the election, the Kremlin turned Mr. Putin’s speech right into a nationwide occasion. It was proven on billboards in Moscow and in film theaters throughout the nation, the Russian state media reported. And on social media, some celebrities rushed to indicate their fealty.
Amongst them: the tv presenter Nastya Ivleyeva, who hosted the hedonistic, “nearly bare” theme celebration in Moscow in December that grew to become a reckoning for Russian stars seen as insufficiently adhering to the “conventional values” that Mr. Putin venerates.
“I watched the president’s handle for the primary time this yr,” Ms. Ivleyeva wrote on the Telegram social messaging app. “The initiatives and initiatives that have been introduced sincerely resonate with me, and I do know that I’ll vote for them.”
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