IRIA News

Tensions with Ukraine, NATO expansion, Navalny’s poisoning, and COVID-19 in focus in Putin’s annual speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin took the stage on Thursday for his customary annual press briefing in Moscow in which he covered a range of internal and external affairs. The end-of-year annual press briefing has been a yearly tradition since 2001 until it was disrupted from its original format in the year 2020 due to the pandemic situation when only a few journalists went to the President’s countryside residence to take part in a short press conference. The four hours long event included a vast array of issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic issues, and tensions with Ukraine. Putin also voiced concerns over NATO expansion and accused the U.S. of coming to its border with missiles. Here are some major takeaways from the press briefing:

Tensions with Ukraine

On increasing tensions with Ukraine, Putin stressed that Moscow has repeatedly made it clear that NATO’s further movement towards the east is unacceptable.

According to some intelligence reports, Russia has deployed around 90,000 troops and high-end military equipment along the Ukrainian border. However, Moscow denies the warmongering allegations and accuses the U.S. and its allies of providing military support to Kyiv for inciting tension between Russia and Ukraine.

Putin stated he demands NATO for the de-escalation of tensions, which include an end to NATO and Washington’s military support for Ukraine, a ban on any enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance, and an end to all Western military activity near Russia.

The Russian leader said his country needs an “immediate” response from the US and its allies to its demands. “Is it us who are putting missiles near the U.S. borders?” Putin said angrily. “No, it’s the U.S. who came to our home with its missiles, it’s already on the threshold of our home. Is it some excessive demand not to place any strike weapons systems near our home? How would the Americans react if missiles were placed at the border with Canada or Mexico?” He also accused NATO of having “fooled” Russia with five waves of expansion since the Cold War.

Alexei Navalny’s alleged poisoning

One of the most anticipated topics during the press briefing was opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s arrest and the ongoing investigation. When asked about the accusation of poisoning, Putin disregarded the allegation while stating that there is no evidence whatsoever that he was exposed to any kind of poisoning. “We sent numerous official inquiries from the Russian prosecutor’s office asking for any documents proving the poisoning. There is not a single paper. How can we explain it? Not a single evidence of this Novichok, or whatever you call it,” he said. “We suggested sending our specialists there in Germany so that they work together. I personally told the French President and the German Chancellor that let our specialists work on the investigation with their teams, let us take a sample, give us grounds to open a criminal case. But we never got a positive response” he said.

Russia’s COVID-19 prevention and vaccination policy

The first and foremost topic that President addressed at the briefing was the COVID-19 prevention policy and its implications. He was questioned about the low vaccinations rates, public disturbance, and distrust related to the vaccines. According to the official stats, 520,000 people have died because of the COVID-19 in less the two years while some 59.4% of the population is termed protected in Russia. This includes those who have been vaccinated as well as those who have contacted the virus and recovered from it. President Putin stressed on the importance of vaccination as he stated, “We need to attain herd immunity which is only possible if at least 80% of our population is vaccinated.” He hoped that Russia would be able to achieve herd immunity within the first quarter of 2022.

Post-pandemic economic crisis

Putin claimed that Russia’s economy was among the first ones to recover from the severe downturns of pandemics. “Our economic downturn was only 3%, which is much lower than in many leading economies around the world, and we recovered much quicker than other countries,” he stated. Although the economy has recovered significantly, he admitted that Inflation increased to 8% due to external factors. He rated the work of the country’s economic administration as “satisfactory” and said that Russia’s real income growth will average 3.5% next year. He also stated that if the pandemic crisis was not there, Russia was on course to achieve an all-time high 4.5% economic growth rate.

Freedom of expression

Apart from these major issues the President also commented on recent developments in the western world. He stated that Russia had evolved as a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state so Russians are used to respecting each other’s traditions but some western states have confused artistic freedom with hurting sentimental values, it has limits and it should not infringe on other’s freedom. He further added that insults to Prophet Muhammad were a violation of “the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam”.

His remarks were highly appreciated by leaders of Muslim countries including the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, who has been a strong advocate of the united Islamic strategy against the increasing Islamophobia on several international forums. He welcomed President Putin’s statement, which he said “reaffirms my message that insulting our Holy Prophet PBUH is not ‘freedom of expression,’” urging Muslim leaders to counter Islamophobia.