Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his first speech to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday after the start of the war in Ukraine. In a statement full of accusations against the West, Putin has announced the suspension of Russian participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the last pact signed with the United States for the reduction and control of nuclear weapons.
Russia “must be prepared to conduct nuclear tests if the United States carries them out first”, said Putin, who has indicated that they do not “abandon” the treaty but rather suspend “participation”.
In a speech full of victimhood, Putin has claimed that Moscow is only “using force to end” the war he launched almost a year ago and has accused the West of expanding NATO to its borders.
“I want to insist on this: they are to blame for the invasionand we are trying to stop it”, said Putin, who has gone so far as to affirm that Russia is doing “everything possible to resolve the conflict peacefully”.
“We tried our best to solve it. We patiently held negotiations for a peaceful solution to this serious conflict, but behind our backs they were preparing another scenario,” he said from the Gostini Dvor convention center in Moscow.
Putin has stated that the war in Ukraine has made the Ukrainian people “a hostage to Kiev and the Westerners” and has spoken of an “anti-Russia” project, “revanchist, which has led to the creation of conflict groups near our border”. In his opinion, it is the West that “strives to take the conflict to a global dimension.” “The longer the range of Ukrainian weapons the more we will have to justify our borders“, has warned.
Pedophilia and the West
In addition, Putin has defended the “economic stability of Russia in the face of pressure from the West” and has defended that the sanctions “are not working”. He has also charged against the “lies” of the leaders of the international community to the “young generations”. “They modify historical factors, they attack our culture, our orthodox church. They destroy families, they want to destroy identity,” she pointed out.
“Pedophilia becomes a norm of his life and priests are required to bless gay marriages. Older people can do what they want, private life is not subject to our influence, we do not intend to control it, but we must say: it comes in the sacred scriptures of all religions. The family is a union of a man and a woman,” Putin said.