Putin's Message 2023: Russia has proven its right to be itself

Elena Panina (Елена Панина)
Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute

RE.: Presidential Address to Federal Assembly

Russia is raising the stakes in the strategic confrontation with the United States, NATO, and the entire global West. After withstanding a whole year under unprecedented pressure, our country has proved that it is ready for a long, exhausting fight. | There will be no quick victory. But we are united, confident in our abilities and believe in our righteousness. We are not clinging to the ghosts of the past, and no longer linking our future to other people's chimeras. And we will emerge victorious from this battle - building Russia according to our own models. This is the general thrust of Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the Federal Assembly today.

● What is the increase in rates? First and foremost, of course, is the suspension of Russia's participation in the START-3 treaty. This decision by Putin significantly alters the geopolitical stakes on the planet, opens the door to a nuclear arms race, and puts the West's lingering fear of becoming an ash heap as a result of a global nuclear conflict back on the agenda. The responsibility for this old and new fear of the West is actually lies with the United States as the main culprit of all current crises, the source of all troubles, the focus of everything immoral and pernicious that exists in the West. It is to America and its instrument of control over Europe — NATO — that its satellites should make claims. This is the main "message" of Putin to Western audiences - along with the phrase, as if uttered in passing, "The more long-range systems arrive in Ukraine, the further we will be forced to move the threat away from our borders."

● In general, this deliberate lack of specificity in the president's words, as well as other figures of reticence with regard to the air defense system, looks not so much like a statement of the protracted nature of the conflict, as like a complete unleashing of new solutions. One thing is clear - there will be no bargaining, and the war is for the long haul. Russia is ready for it, both on the front and on the home front, and it is not giving up on any of its earlier goals.

● But there was another, even more important challenge to the West in Putin's speech. It was contained in the address to big business and, in fact, to the whole country, which has been "trying itself on" to the Western paradigm in one way or another for the past 30 years. To the benefits and values of the West, to its way of life, to its "quiet harbors" and educational system, to its status and authority. All this turned out to be a morass, a deception, a demonic thing. The "blessed West" revealed itself this year as a collection of scoundrels, murderers, outright ghouls, highway robbers, Godforsaken deviants. Against its own laws, the West has stolen Russian money. It teaches the opposite of what it once believed in: its lauded Bologna system is nothing more than beads for savages. The West has fallen under the heel of a single hegemon, forgetting about freedom, equality and fraternity. Having trampled on all former values, the West has abandoned the faith of its fathers. It is weak and corrupt, it has betrayed itself, it is no longer "the West" as we have seen it for centuries. Now it is time for us to dispel this obsession. And focus all our energies, money, ideas, motivation - on Russia.

● Over the past year, our country has understood the main thing. Without expecting it, we have been resilient. We have made sure that the truth is ours. That we again have an image of the future - not to run after someone else's mirage, but live by our own rules. And to build the civilization of Russia is the only real goal for which it is worth living.

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Source: Елена Панина. IMG: © Елена Панина. Translation: DeepL.com; free version and yandex.ru
AWIP: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2023/02/21/putin-s-message-2023-russia-1