Main Message Of Putin’s Big Speech: Russia is Fed Up with Neo-con Aggression

Greetings,

Main Message Of Putin’s Big Speech: Russia is Fed Up with Neo-con Aggression

Disgusted, Russia officially gives up any pretense of “dialog” with the neo-cons who have hijacked US foreign policy, and a spineless Europe which refuses to stand up to them

The full address of President Putin to the Federal Assembly is now available online and, since the text is rather long, I will not re-post it here.

What I propose to do here is to bring to your attention four verbatim excerpts from his speech with some key segments bolded out.

Most of the speech was on economic and internal matters, but I think that these four points and, especially, the expressions chosen by Putin really “tell the story” of what the Kremlin’s position vis-à-vis the West is nowadays. See for yourself:

1) Crimea is Russian forever:

“It was an event of special significance for the country and the people, because Crimea is where our people live, and the peninsula is of strategic importance for Russia as the spiritual source of the development of a multifaceted but solid Russian nation and a centralised Russian state.

It was in Crimea, in the ancient city of Chersonesus or Korsun, as ancient Russian chroniclers called it, that Grand Prince Vladimir was baptised before bringing Christianity to Rus.

In addition to ethnic similarity, a common language, common elements of their material culture, a common territory, even though its borders were not marked then, and a nascent common economy and government, Christianity was a powerful spiritual unifying force that helped involve various tribes and tribal unions of the vast Eastern Slavic world in the creation of a Russian nation and Russian state.

It was thanks to this spiritual unity that our forefathers for the first time and forevermore saw themselves as a united nation.

All of this allows us to say that Crimea, the ancient Korsun or Chersonesus, and Sevastopol have invaluable civilisational and even sacral importance for Russia, like the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the followers of Islam and Judaism.

And this is how we will always consider it.”

2) Russia will never become an EU colony:

“By the way, Russia has already made a major contribution to helping Ukraine.

Let me reiterate that Russian banks already invested some $25 billion in Ukraine.

Last year, Russia’s Finance Ministry extended a loan worth another $3 billion. Gazprom provided another $5.5 billion to Ukraine and even offered a discount that no one promised, requiring the country to pay $4.5 billion.

Add it all up and you get as much as $ 32.5-33.5 billion that were provided only recently.

Of course, we have the right to ask questions. What was this Ukrainian tragedy for?

Wasn’t it possible to settle all the issues, even disputed issues, through dialogue, within a legal framework and legitimately?

But now we are being told that this was actually competent, balanced politics that we should comply with unquestionably and blindfolded.

This will never happen.

If for some European countries national pride is a long-forgotten concept and sovereignty is too much of a luxury, true sovereignty for Russia is absolutely necessary for survival.”

3) The Empire was Russia’s mortal enemy long before Crimea

“We remember well how and who, almost openly, supported separatism back then and even outright terrorism in Russia, referred to murderers, whose hands were stained with blood, none other than rebels and organised high-level receptions for them.

These “rebels” showed up in Chechnya again. I’m sure the local guys, the local law enforcement authorities, will take proper care of them.

They are now working to eliminate another terrorist raid.

Let’s support them.

Let me reiterate, we remember high-level receptions for terrorists dubbed as fighters for freedom and democracy.

Back then, we realised that the more ground we give and the more excuses we make, the more our opponents become brazen and the more cynical and aggressive their demeanor becomes….more here

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Main Message Of Putin’s Big Speech: Russia is Fed Up with Neo-con Aggression