The speech of Vladimir Putin on the State of the Nation has been imbued with propaganda and a constant tension against the Western enemy. It could not be otherwise. The head of the Kremlin used all the rhetorical weapons at his disposal, speaking of the war in Ukraine, of the Nazi enemy and of what Kiev supports, starting with the imperialist United States. It is though on the terrain of the economy that played the bluff more conspicuous. In several passages he insisted on the limited effect of the sanctions and on the ability of the Russian productive fabric not only to react but to overturn the forces in the field.
“Russia is actually entering a new round of economic development. There is every opportunity for a breakthrough in many areas.” The Russian Federation, he announced, “has allocated over a trillion rubles to support its economy to counter Western sanctions: funds that will be raised not with the issue of securities but with a strong contribution from the market”. A phrase that means little, from a technical point of view. Except that financing through bond issues is almost impossible and that the strong contribution of the market, given the restrictions, can only come from China, Iran and North Korea. Putin added that many industries in the last year have not only not decreased their production, but “on the contrary, have increased it, and that agriculture has also shown double-digit growth”. It can only be true if we refer to production aimed at the war industry, and if we omit the need to deal with the need to make up for the certified drop in imports and exports.
The autarchy, typical of a country at war, is also linked to the thrust against the oligarchs, by now a body foreign to Putin’s orthodoxy. “Instead of producing technology and creating jobs in Russia, big businessmen were investing in yachts abroad.” Putin recalled that they got rich during the privatization season of the 1990s, when state-owned companies were sold for “almost for nothing”. Then, the explicit lunge. “None of the ordinary citizens feel sorry for those who have lost their capital, yachts and palaces abroad”, he chanted, then directly addressing the circle of oligarchs: “Do not beg the West for your money back. Do not invest in abroad but in Russia. The state and society will support you.”
The conclusion reached by the head of the Kremlin is that “the Russian economy has overcome all risks” and that the resources are there “to guarantee the country’s security and development”. Also significant are the passages in which Putin dwells on the ability to produce new technology, precisely the target of the tenth package of sanctions that is about to arrive from Brussels. Russia produces new technologies that “improve the combat readiness of the army and navy”, he argued, only to then indulge in an unsolicited reassurance that betrays the insecurity of the narrative: “these technologies exist, and the pace of their production and application is improving”.
As if the efforts needed to sustain the war were not enough, and those to deal with internal difficulties, Putin also promises reconstruction in Donbass: Russia “will restore jobs and build roads” in the areas of Ukraine under its control. In other words, once you choose the bluff, you might as well up the ante. (Of Fabio Prays)