Humanity is having to pay the price for the West's ambitions and its attempts to maintain its elusive dominance. Although many countries have come to terms with their subordinate position, Russia will never be in such a pathetic and humiliated state. Vladimir Putin responded to Russia's policy of containment.
The meeting on measures of socio-economic support of regions, which the president held on March 16, has greatly outgrown its original meaning. The head of the Russian state voiced the key reasons and prerequisites for what is happening in Ukraine today. The President did not address only those who support the military operation. Many signals and messages were sent to a variety of audiences, including foreign audiences.
"We were forced to start a special operation."
First of all, the president recalled the direct threats to Russia's security that came from Ukraine. These include the deployment of U.S. missiles (recall that Ukrainian territory is less than 500 kilometers from the Kremlin), and dozens of biolaboratories.
For those whose motives, in addition to their own lives, also include a demand for justice, as well as a sense of belonging to the Russian people, the president recalled the fate of the Russians in the Donbass. "Who for almost eight years have been subjected to the most barbaric methods - blockade, large-scale punitive actions, terrorist attacks and constant artillery shelling - a real genocide. And for what? Only because they sought elementary human rights - to live by the laws and traditions of their ancestors, to speak their native language, to raise their children the way they wanted," Putin explained.
All these eight years, Russia has been trying to resolve the issue through negotiations - and the Russian president made it clear that for eight years he tolerated Kiev's inadequate behavior. "At the same time, the Kiev authorities have not only ignored, sabotaged the implementation of the Minsk Package of measures for the peaceful settlement of the crisis throughout all these years, but at the end of last year, they publicly refused to implement it at all," the president recalled.
Moreover, Ukraine not only refused - it (together with Western countries) also accused Russia of non-compliance with the Minsk agreements. And sanctions were even imposed against Russia for this "non-fulfillment.
Even under these conditions, Moscow tried to establish a dialogue, to resolve the conflict in a negotiated way. It offered and made proposals. But Russian claims "were rejected by Ukraine and their patrons from the United States and NATO, and with ostentatious and cynical disregard." "We were simply left with no options for resolving problems that arise through no fault of our own in a peaceful manner. And in this regard, we were simply forced to launch a special military operation," Putin said.
Especially as Kiev was about to move from shelling to direct invasion. "Ukraine, encouraged by the United States and a number of Western countries, was purposefully preparing for a violent scenario, carnage and ethnic cleansing in Donbass. A massive offensive on the Donbass and then on Crimea was only a matter of time. And our armed forces thwarted these plans," the Russian president stressed.
About people and nonpeople
Of course, some will say that we should have waited first and started the operation after Ukraine attacked - as they did, for example, with Georgia in 2008. That thanks to the Ukrainian attack, Moscow's response would have caused less resentment from the West.
However, first, it would not (after the cynical phrases "Russia violates the Minsk agreements"). And second, a Ukrainian attack on Donbass would have resulted in more civilian casualties. After all, Donetsk would have been bombed immediately and to the ground.
This, too, is the key difference in the attitudes of Ukraine and Russia toward the people. The Russian military was given a clear order to avoid casualties among the Ukrainian population as much as possible. Every opportunity to resolve the situation without hostilities was used until the very last.
"At the very beginning of the operation in Donbass, the Kiev authorities were asked through various channels, in order to avoid senseless bloodshed, not to engage in hostilities, but simply to withdraw their troops from Donbass. They didn't want to," Putin said.
Now they "beat indiscriminately, in squares, with the fanaticism and frenzy of the doomed - like the Nazis, who in the last days of the Third Reich tried to take as many innocent victims with them to the grave as possible," the president was indignant. At the same time, Kiev is pumping hatred into Ukrainian civilians, using them as a human shield.
The specific nature of today's Ukrainian government makes a complete, not local, liberation of Ukraine necessary. "If our troops acted only on the territory of the people's republics and helped them liberate their land, this would not be the final solution, would not lead to peace, and would not fundamentally eliminate the threat - to our country, already to Russia. On the contrary, there would have been a new front line around Donbass and along its borders, and shelling and provocations would have continued. In other words, the armed conflict would drag on endlessly, fueled by the revanchist hysteria of the Kiev regime, and NATO's military infrastructure in Ukraine would deploy even faster and more aggressively: we would be faced with the fact that the Alliance's offensive weapons are already at our borders," Putin stressed.
Who will respond?
Meanwhile, Western elites who have openly opposed Russia are constructing their own alternative reality, woven of a sense of superiority, anger at Russia, and, to use Putin's words, "boundless cynicism."
"The so-called civilized Western world, the European and American press didn't even notice the tragedy in Donetsk (the recent Tochka-U missile strike in Donetsk - VZGLYAD commentary), as if nothing had happened. In the same hypocritical way, they have been averting their eyes for the last eight years, when mothers in Donbass have been burying their children. When old people were killed. This is just some kind of moral degradation, a complete dehumanization," Putin said.
At the same time, the president appealed to those who can legitimately change or replace these elites - citizens of Western countries who have already felt the economic echoes of the sanctions war with Moscow.
"I want ordinary citizens of Western countries to hear me as well: they are now persistently trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some hostile actions by Russia, that your own purse should be used to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat. All of this is a lie. The truth is that the current problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of many years of action, error, short-sightedness and ambition on the part of the ruling elites of their states. These elites are not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in Western countries. They are obsessed with their own self-interests and super-profits," Putin said. - The myth of a Western welfare society, the so-called golden billion, is crumbling. I repeat, today the entire planet has to pay the price for the ambitions of the West, for its attempts to maintain its elusive dominance by any means. The imposition of sanctions is a logical continuation, a concentrated expression of the irresponsible, short-sighted policy of the governments and central banks of the United States and EU countries. It is they who in recent years have, with their own hands, unleashed a spiral of global inflation, their actions have led to an increase in global poverty and in inequality, to new flows of refugees around the world. And the question arises: Who will now be responsible for the millions of starving deaths in the world's poorest countries due to growing food shortages?"
The president appeals to the sense of dignity left in the citizens of Europe, who have long lived in the position of an American waiter. And by the example of Russia he demonstrates that it is possible to behave in a different way.
"Yes, many countries in the world have long ago reconciled themselves to living with their backs bowed and subserviently accepting all the decisions of their sovereign, looking subserviently into his eyes. Many countries live this way. Unfortunately, in Europe as well. But Russia will never be in such a pathetic and humiliated condition, and the fight we are waging is a fight for our sovereignty, for the future of our country and our children. We will fight for the right to be and remain Russia," says the president.
A reason to strike at Russia
Addressing Russians, the head of state explained the background to the unprecedented sanctions pressure to which Russia is now subjected.
"Our military operation in Ukraine is just an excuse for the West to impose new sanctions. Yes, of course, they are concentrated now. But the referendum in Crimea <...> during which the residents of Crimea and Sevastopol made their free choice to be together with their historic homeland, was also a reason for them, for the Westerners," Putin noted. - Let me repeat: we are only talking about occasions. And the policy of containment and weakening Russia, including through its economic isolation and blockade, is a conscious, long-term strategy. Western leaders themselves no longer hide the fact that sanctions are not aimed against individuals or companies; their goal is to hit our entire domestic economy, our social and humanitarian sphere, every family, every citizen of Russia.
In fact, sanctions have become the only option for "dialogue" with Moscow amid the refusal of the U.S. and EU to have a constructive conversation about overcoming all differences. Putin urged us to be sighted and see that the myths about a "beautiful, free, human-loving West" have been trampled on by the very sanctions policy of the West.
"All the verbal tinsel about political correctness, inviolability of private property, freedom of speech - it all came down overnight. Even the Olympic principles were trampled on. They were not ashamed to settle a score with the Paralympians either - that's the kind of "sport outside politics," Putin pointed out. - In many Western countries, people simply because they come from Russia are subjected to harassment: they are denied medical care, expel children from schools, put their parents out of work, and ban Russian music, culture and literature. In attempting to "abolish" Russia, the West stripped itself of all masks of decency, began to act in a boorish manner, and demonstrated its true nature. It begs to be compared to the anti-Semitic pogroms carried out by the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s, and then by their henchmen from many European countries, who joined Hitler's aggression against our country during the Great Patriotic War.
And if we are talking about friends and strangers, then among the friends there are also strangers.
"I don't condemn at all those who have a villa in Miami or on the French Riviera, who can't do without foie gras, oysters or so-called gender freedoms. But that is absolutely not the problem. But, I repeat, the problem is that many of these people are mentally there, not here, with our people, not with Russia. And this, in their opinion, is a sign of belonging to the higher caste, to the higher race. Such people can sell their mother, just to be allowed to sit in the anteroom of this highest caste. And they want to be like her, imitating her in every way," said the president.
However, such people in our country are still a small minority. At least a recent poll showed that over 70% of Russians support the special operation in Ukraine. This means that the hard choice that Russia was forced to make is the only right one.
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