ANALYSIS | Putin tries to up the ante on his state of the nation address with an arms control threat

Putin and the suspension of the nuclear weapons treaty 3:27

(CNN) --

Russian President Vladimir Putin burst the bubble of various expectations in his state of the nation address Tuesday.

He did not declare martial law or announce a new wave of military mobilization.

In fact, he recycled the same lines about his justification for invading Ukraine nearly a year ago, and he outlined no vision of how the war he started might end.

But Putin did provide at least one headline, announcing that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty.

• "It was they who started the war," Putin tells the Russian Federal Assembly for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine

"The United States and NATO openly declare that their goal is the strategic defeat of Russia," he said.

"So what, after that we're supposed to let them hang around our (nuclear) facilities?"

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivering his speech on February 21.

Credit: Pavel Bednyakov/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

Putin was referring to complaints by US officials that Russia was violating New START, the most recent arms control agreement in force and governing the world's two largest nuclear arsenals, by refusing to allow US inspections. of its nuclear facilities.

"They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and climb all over our nuclear facilities," Putin said.

"That is why I want to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the START treaty."

The Kremlin leader was quick to add that Russia is not fully withdrawing from the treaty, but only suspending its participation.

But he preceded his remarks on arms control with a lengthy tirade about the West's alleged goals in providing aid to Ukraine.

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Putin delivers his state of the nation address to a crowd in central Moscow.

Credit: Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

"I don't know how to refer to this if it is not like the theater of the absurd," Putin said.

"We know that NATO is complicit in the Kyiv regime's attempts to attack our airbases. And the drones used for this have been equipped and modernized by NATO specialists. And now they want to come and inspect our bases? Given the confrontation today, this seems total nonsense," he insisted.

• What is the New START nuclear arms control treaty from which Russia suspends its participation?

The suspension of the New START Treaty somewhat maintains an uncomfortable

.

Under the agreement, the United States and Russia can conduct inspections of each other's weapons sites to verify their compliance, but those inspections have been put on hold since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Russian recruits pictured in Omsk, Russia, in November 2022. Credit: Alexey Malgavko/Reuters

Putin's speech, therefore, had nothing new.

In his sparse 1 hour 45 minute speech, he offered a few options from a menu of grievances about the West and repeated the same justifications for its full-scale war against Ukraine.

His speech, in fact, was reminiscent of the one he broadcast on television on February 24, 2022, when he announced the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the so-called "special military operation" of Russia.

Putin repeated the same baseless claim that Moscow had no choice but to use force against Ukraine.

And he again blamed the West for the conflict.

"I want to repeat it: it was they who started the war," Putin said.

"And we used and continue to use force to stop it."

Graves belonging to fighters of the Wagner group in Krasnodar.

Credit: Reuters

These statements seem directed at a national audience that, in many ways, has seen its sense of normality disrupted.

So Putin also played the reassuring wartime leader, holding a minute's silence for soldiers killed in Ukraine and vowing that Russia would create a special fund to offer help to the families of veterans and soldiers killed in Ukraine and strengthen social benefits for them.

Russia's president also indirectly addressed some of the discontent within the ranks that has reached the Kremlin after a partial mobilization last fall.

The mobilization has been beset by logistical difficulties that have undermined morale, supply problems and general disorganization, which has provoked great outrage in Russian society.

Putin promised that rotations in Ukraine would be more predictable and that soldiers would enjoy much-needed furloughs.

"Service in the zone of the special military operation, everyone understands very well, is associated with colossal physical and psychological stress, with everyday risks to health and life," he said.

"Therefore, I consider it necessary to establish for those mobilized, in general for all military personnel, for all participants in the special military operation, including volunteers, regular permits of at least 14 days and at least once every six months, excluding travel time, so that each soldier has the opportunity to visit their families, to be close to their relatives and friends."

This statement can be interpreted in another way: the Russians need to prepare for a long war, so the soldiers should expect some rest and recuperation time.

The response to Putin's speech by many Ukrainians was, for those who bothered to pay attention, downright dismissive.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, suggested that Putin had lost his way.

"Putin publicly demonstrated the irrelevance and confusion of him," he said on Twitter.

"Because everywhere there are 'Nazis, Martians and conspiracy theories'."

It's a mocking assessment, but in many ways accurate.

The main takeaway for the Russians from Putin's speech was: they are surrounded by enemies, they started the war, and there is no light at the end of the "special military operation" tunnel.

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