On Tuesday, three days before the anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to the nation. The Russian President spoke at length before the Federal Assembly, and announced the color from the start of his hour of monologue: “A year ago, to ensure our security, we launched a special military operation in Ukraine. Step by step and methodically, we will achieve our quantified objectives. Vladimir Putin’s remarks were then hijacked, on several occasions. 20 Minutes make the point.
Many publications shared on social networks provide access to the Russian President’s speech. Videos that come from television channels such as LCI or France Info, which have their own translators. No doubt about the reliability of these videos. The problem is the descriptions attached to the publications.
“Zelensky will pay for his betrayal. »
Vladimir Putin has neither announced that the Ukrainian president is a traitor, nor that he will pay for it. As our journalist Cécile De Sèze recalled in her article, the boss of the Kremlin called for the prosecution of “traitors” in Russia. “Those who chose to betray Russia must be held accountable before the law,” he said. He did mention the presence of “traitors” within his own country, but not abroad. He therefore never associated his words with Volodymyr Zelensky.
He never explicitly named the Ukrainian president in his speech. You have to read between the lines to understand that it is mentioned several times. As when Vladimir Putin advances: “We are not at war against the people of Ukraine, they are hostages of the Western owners who occupy this country. »
“We are with China. »
Vladimir Putin also did not claim that China was his ally. If Russia found itself isolated on the international scene after the offensive launched against its neighbor, it has always maintained close ties with China. However, the Middle Kingdom insisted that Russia was not its ally but its partner.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday that China was “very worried” about the conflict in Ukraine. And to add, during a conference in Beijing: “We will continue to promote dialogue for peace (…) and to work with the international community to promote dialogue and consultation. »
But, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, China is preparing to deliver weapons to Russia to wage its war in Ukraine. The information has since been denied. If they happened, these deliveries would mark a major break in the Chinese approach to the conflict.
“NATO does not scare us. »
Vladimir Putin actually talked about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) throughout his speech. He again accused the United States and NATO of orchestrating the conflict to wipe Russia off the map.
According to the Russian president, “even before the start of the special military operation, kyiv was negotiating with the West for deliveries to Ukraine of air defense systems, combat aircraft and other heavy equipment”. He also denounced “concrete actions: the deployment of NATO or military contingents” on the Russian border. But in his speech, he did not say that he was not afraid of the intergovernmental organization. In contrast, he uttered those words in April 2014, during a televised question-and-answer session in Moscow.
“France is afraid to face us. »
If the Russian president did not directly name France in his speech, the country was of course targeted through the various attacks made on Westerners and NATO.
It was the former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who argued last November that Emmanuel Macron was “afraid of Russia”. Currently, several French political personalities also think so. In question, the cautious attitude of the president to engage firmly alongside Ukraine, unlike other Western countries. The French president had also declared that it was not necessary to “humiliate Russia”: the formula does not pass with some.