Vladimir Putin, after opening fire on the West and repeating his nuclear threats, signed the treaties to annex the four regions.
“The people decided. Russia has four new regions”characteristically stated the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin at the start of his speech while asking Kyiv to return to the negotiating table.
“The people have made their choice, and it is final,” he said, referring to the referendums, and added that residents of the regions of eastern Ukraine annexed by Russia will be “our citizens forever.”
“The people voted for our common future,” he said characteristically during his speech before members of the political staff of the Russian state in the Kremlin.
“Those who lost their lives in the special military operation are heroes of Great Russia,” he noted before returning to the well-known narrative of its dissolution Soviet Union that separated people from the Motherland and for the alleged 2014 neo-Nazi coup in Ukraine.
The “destruction” of the Soviet Union “destroyed the connections between different parts” of the country, he pointed out, adding that he “does not aim” to go back to the past and rebuild the Soviet Union.
“Kyiv must return to the negotiating table”
He also invited Kyiv to respect the result of the referendums and made it clear that Moscow is going to defend its territories by all means. Vladimir Putin also called on Ukraine to immediately stop all military actions and the war “that started in 2014”.
Kyiv must “return to the negotiating table”, he stressed. “We are open to it and have stated it many times. But the Ukrainian authorities must “respect the will of the people,” he continued, referring to the referendums held on Ukrainian territory last week.
“We will protect our land using all our powers and do everything to ensure people’s safety,” he said.
“The West wants to see us as its slaves”
At the same time, the Russian president launched new accusations against the West? pointing out he seeks to weaken Russia and bring it to its knees.
“The West is looking for new opportunities to hit us and has always dreamed of breaking up our state into smaller states that will fight against each other,” he said, calling it “greedy” because, as he said, it wants Russia to be in its “colony”.
“They don’t want to see us as a free society. They want to see us as a bunch of slaves,” he said as the audience burst into applause.
“They don’t need Russia. We need Russia!” he added, stressing that Russia is a great country with a great culture that refuses to live under the “false rules” dictated by the West.
The Russian leader continued to fire against the West and presented his country as a defender of “traditional” values. “They believe that their culture and their neoliberal culture is the gold standard for everyone,” while they “decide unilaterally who has the right to self-determination and who does not.”
“We are fighting for the great, historic Russia. There will be no Western hegemony,” he explained.
“Western elites have always been like this. They were colonizers and they remain, they distinguish between the first class nations and the second class nations. That’s why there is the “Russophobia” that is spreading throughout the West,” he said.
But he also brought them back his nuclear threats, even claiming that there is a historical precedent due to the American nuclear strikes against Japan.
“Anglo-Saxons” blew up the Nord Stream pipelines
Referring to his pipeline leaks Nord Stream Putin directly blamed the “Anglo-Saxon” forces.
“Sanctions were not enough for the Anglo-Saxons: they proceeded with sabotage,” Putin said. “It’s hard to believe, but it’s a fact that they organized the explosions on the Nord Stream international gas pipeline,” the Russian president said.
“US and allies are waging ‘hybrid war against’ Russia”
He then launched accusations specifically against the US and its allies, saying they are waging a “hybrid war” against Russia and the separatist administrations it has backed in eastern Ukraine, and added that the West has no moral right to talk about democracy, stressing that there are reasons to “believe that Western countries are not looking for a way out of the global food crisis.”
After finishing his speech, Vladimir Putin signed the relevant treaties for the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions together with the appointed Russian leaders of the four regions.
The Russian president’s fiesta started a little after 15:00. The Kremlin chamber was packed with journalists to hear the much-anticipated speech in which he will sign decrees annexing Ukrainian territories seized by the Russian military during seven months of fighting. Also in the room were Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as all the associates of the Russian president, in all posts.
A huge tent was also set up in Moscow’s Red Square, with signs proclaiming that the four regions are part of Russia while roads have been closed around the iconic square.
It is recalled that in the previous days the four regions, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, held referendums, in which the population of the regions overwhelmingly voted in favor of annexation to Russia.
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