Annual high mass for Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president delivered his traditional speech to the nation this Thursday at Gostiny Dvor, a congress center located near Red Square in Moscow.
During this long speech,
he took stock of the past year and defined Russia's priorities, two weeks before an unopposed presidential election.
His speech was broadcast not only on television but also free of charge in cinemas in 20 cities in Russia.
Russian advances in Ukraine, the possibility of Western troops being sent, the Russian presidential election… Here is what we should remember from his speech.
Progress in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin welcomed the advance in Ukraine of his troops, who have achieved several successes in recent weeks against Kiev forces on the defensive and lacking ammunition.
“The military capabilities of the (
Russian
) armed forces have been multiplied.
They are advancing with confidence in several directions” of the front, declared the Russian president.
The Russian president appears in better shape than a year ago, when his army was subject to humiliating retreats in the south and northeast of Ukraine, after an abortive attempt to seize Kiev in the spring 2022.
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Since then, the Ukrainian army has failed in its counter-offensive launched in the summer of 2023 and finds itself on the defensive, lacking ammunition due to lack of agreement in Washington and due to the slowness of European deliveries, facing Russian soldiers. more numerous and better armed.
In mid-February, the latter succeeded in seizing the fortress town of Avdiivka, on the Eastern front, and continued their push in this sector, arousing the satisfaction of Vladimir Putin.
“We preserved the unity of the country, we did not allow it to be torn into pieces,” said the head of the Kremlin.
“Weapons” against the West
According to him, Western Russia must be “properly protected” after the enlargement of NATO to Sweden and Finland.
Alliance forces “are preparing to strike our territory,” he said, using “the most effective forces.”
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He warns Western countries.
“They must understand that we too have weapons capable of hitting targets on their territory.
Everything that they are inventing at the moment, in addition to frightening the whole world, is a real threat of conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and therefore of the destruction of civilization,” continued the master of the Kremlin.
“So they don’t understand that?”
“, he wondered aloud.
“Everything that they are inventing now, what they are scaring the world with, all this constitutes a real threat of conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, which means the destruction of civilization,” he said. -he adds.
While Western countries have imposed numerous and heavy sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the Russian leader calls for establishing “new points of contact” with Arab, Latin American and international countries. Africa.
He also attacked the current American authorities, accusing them of “wanting to show that they run the world as before” and of engaging in “demagoguery” before the American presidential election next November.
According to him, Russia is “ready for a dialogue” with the United States on issues of “strategic stability”.
Encourage the birth rate
For the Russian president, “family ties and moral values are destroyed” in the West.
Faced with a declining birth rate in his country, Vladimir Putin assures that the government is “fighting this at all levels”.
“Large families must become the norm,” according to him, while Russia has been facing serious demographic problems for many years, reinforced by the assault in Ukraine and the departure abroad of hundreds of thousands of citizens.
He also assured that the fight against poverty in Russia was one of his priorities, welcomed a drop in “alcohol consumption” and promised more funding to renovate the country's schools.
Become the fourth world power
Discussing his domestic policy objectives, Vladimir Putin indicates that he wants to improve life expectancy in Russia in order to ensure that the next generation is “strong”.
Vladimir Putin promises investments in sports and health facilities in particular.
It is also putting forward several million rubles of investment in industrial and technological fields including artificial intelligence.
Russia is expected to become the fourth largest economic power in the world “in the next decade”.
He promises an increase in wages and economic support for SMEs.
He does not exclude a tax increase which must be “regular”.