This is a highly anticipated annual address.
This Thursday from 12 p.m. (local time), Vladimir Putin addresses the Nation at Gostiny Dvor, a congress center located near Red Square in Moscow in front of the country's political and military elite but also on television and free in cinemas in 20 cities in Russia.
Enough to allow the Russian president to take stock of the past year and set objectives “for the next six years”.
Two weeks before a presidential election from March 15 to 17, without surprise and without opposition, the leader of the Kremlin appears in a better position than a year ago when his army was subject to humiliating retreats in the south and the northeastern Ukraine, after an abortive attempt to seize Kiev in the spring of 2022.
There, he is reinforced by Russian advances in Ukraine with a Ukrainian army which failed in its counter-offensive launched in the summer of 2023, which lacks ammunition due to lack of agreement in Washington.
In mid-February, the Russian army succeeded in seizing the fortress town of Avdiïvka, on the Eastern front, and continued their push in this sector.
Furthermore, despite international sanctions, its country's economy has demonstrated astonishing resilience by finding or strengthening its partnerships with countries in Asia while allowing it to increase its war effort for the manufacture of equipment or by strengthening his army.
The day before Navalny's funeral
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to discuss the themes of the speech, saying only that the president wrote it personally.
For his part, Vladimir Putin declared that his speech would “of course” take into account the presidential election organized from March 15 to 17 and would make it possible to set “objectives for the next six years at least” which corresponds to term of office of the head of state in Russia.
This speech will obviously be closely scrutinized.
Vladimir Putin could react to the controversial remarks of his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron who raised this week the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine, or to the call from pro-Russian separatists in Moldova who solemnly demanded, on Wednesday, the “protection” of Moscow.
Another question: his speech comes on the eve of the funeral planned in Moscow of his main opponent, the anti-corruption activist Alexeï Navalny, who died on February 16 in prison in obscure conditions.
Will he comment on this death which shocked Western powers even though he never mentioned his name in public?
Finally, as usual, the Russian president should engage in a full-blown attack on the West, presented last year as the depraved enemy of “traditional values” officially defended by the Kremlin.
Last year, he also accused the West of using the conflict in Ukraine to “finish” Russia, reiterating his thesis according to which they support neo-Nazi forces in its neighbor to consolidate an anti-Russian state there.