Important Putin announcement on Ukraine war expected - is he putting everything on one card?

Created: 12/21/2022 5:07 am

By: Richard Strobl

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of military branches involved in the war in Ukraine during a visit to the task force's headquarters December 17, 2022 at an undisclosed location.

© IMAGO/Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin Pool

In Russia, there has recently been increasing criticism of the approach to the Ukraine war.

Putin is now opposing this.

There should be an "important explanation".

Moscow – The mood in Russia has changed after setbacks in the Ukraine war and partial mobilization.

There is not much left of war euphoria.

And so critical tones are now mixed into the Kremlin's propaganda machinery.

Vladimir Putin is now apparently trying to take active countermeasures and take over the reins of action again.

Russian state media report that the Kremlin chief will make an important announcement at a Defense Ministry meeting next week.

"We are waiting for important statements," said Pavel Sarubin, the moderator of the program "Moscow.Kremlin.Putin", on the state broadcaster VGTRK on Sunday.

Putin will chair the Defense Ministry's annual extended meeting.

Important Putin speech on the Ukraine war: is he going all in with Russia's economy now?

An exact date for the meeting is not yet known.

However, Putin is expected in Minsk on Monday for talks with the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

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At a government meeting last week, the Kremlin chief had already called for the armament plans to be adjusted.

It is possible that the 70-year-old will continue to push the conversion of his own economy to a war economy, since his own troops in the Ukraine war continue to have problems with supplies.

Because of the ongoing difficulties, Putin has largely avoided the topic in recent weeks and also canceled the traditional annual press conference shortly before Christmas.

Then there were rumors of a Putin withdrawal.

The head of the Kremlin is now actively countering this.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokeswoman Zakharova claims the West is like George Orwell's 1984 dystopia.

Criticism in Russia: Kremlin launches image campaign for Putin

According to an analysis by US experts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank, the Kremlin is currently trying to “present Putin as a competent war leader and to rehabilitate the image of the Russian Ministry of Defense”.

Schoigu's Ministry of Defense in particular had recently come under massive criticism.

The Kremlin announced on Saturday that Putin had been working all day at the joint headquarters of the Russian army services.

Even pictures of the visit were published.

According to the experts, criticism of Putin himself had recently arisen, particularly in ultra-national sections of the population.

Now the image of the Kremlin ruler is to be cultivated.

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The ISW also reports on new documents intended to prove Russia's catastrophic misplanning at the start of the Ukraine war.