Summary: the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new norms of
international laws resulting from the latter’s dissolution; the ensuing
and continued expansion of NATO eastwards; the unilateralism of the West;
the low cultural standards and arrogance of the West; NATO’s bombing of
Yugoslavia, of Iraq, of Libya, of Syria (i.e. western aggressions and
interventions); the lies about inexistent chemical weapons in Iraq (casus
belli); the resulting upsurge of terrorism; the West’s disregard
for international law and for the generally accepted norms of morality and
ethics; the ‘empire of lies’ within the USA;
Putin on the vassal-like behaviour of Western Europe; the West’s attempt
at finishing off Russia; the West’s sponsorship of international terrorism
in the Caucasus; cultural marxism in the West; the USA’s unwillingness to
reach an agreement with Russia in Dec. 2021 regarding the principles of
European security and NATO’s non-expansion; the USSR’s policy of delaying
the outbreak of war with Germany in 1940-1941 as having cost the USSR
dearly; Putin on ‘those who aspire to global dominance’;
Russia, a powerful nuclear state; NATO’s military presence in Ukraine
represents an existential threat to Russia, one which would remain for
decades and is a red line not to cross; the situation in Donbass; the coup
in Ukraine in 2014; the latter’s government’s refusal to find a peaceful
solution; the genocide of Russians in the Donbass; NATO’s support for the
far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine; attempts at destabilising
Crimea; as a consequence, a showdown was inevitable; Article 51 of the UN
Charter; the numerous bloody crimes against Russian civilians in the
Donbass; Russia not intent on occupying Ukraine; nations’ right to
self-determination, i.e. for Crimea and Sevastopol to be part of Russia,
their homeland; nobody should be allowed to interfere in Russia’s affairs
and its relations; Putin’s addresses to the military personnel of the
Ukrainian Armed Forces, to the citizens of Russia and to the soldiers and
officers of Russia’s Armed Forces; the official translation in English of
the transcript provided by the Kremlin (my emphasis).
Address
by the President of the Russian Federation delivered on 24th February
(censored by the media of the West).
Two days ago, by chance, I
came across the following address delivered by President Putin to
the Russian nation on 24th February, just after the military operations
Russia initiated against Zelensky’s government, the Ukrainian army and
the paramilitary forces that have been waging a war against the Russian
populations in the Donbass for nearly eight years now.
Unable to access the English version of the Kremlin’s
website (anything to do with hackers’ attacks?) and also unable to
access the version saved
by the Internet Archive (censorship?),
I resorted to copying the text from the cached
version saved on the servers of the Russian search engine Yandex.
Copies of both the original Kremlin’s English version and the Yandex
cached page were also saved at https://archive.ph/http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67843.
Given the importance of President Putin’s address for
understanding why (with, I note, support of the Russian parliament) he
decided to resort to military force, I am making the English version of
his address available on my website. This because the Russian point of
view has been made veritas non grata by the West’s press, its
TV networks and its mainstream Internet-mediated media. Make no mistake:
I would have preferred a peaceful solution to the close to eight years
of provocations the West’s puppet government in Ukraine has poked at
Russia to draw its powerful neighbour into such a conflict as well as
the war crimes perpetrated against the Russian ethnic populations in the
Donbass, whose responsibility ultimately falls upon this very same
puppet government of the West, simply because war is really horrible.
PS After having underlined, put in bold and coloured in
green and yellow two thirds of the Russian president’s address, I
decided that it was not necessary
for me to do so for the remainder. Anyhow, I think that I have marked
the most important chunks – should my markings be of any value to the
reader.
TRANSLATION PROVIDED BY THE KREMLIN (my emphasis)
24
February 2022
06:00
Address by the President of the Russian Federation.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Citizens of Russia,
friends,
I consider it necessary today to speak again about the tragic
events in Donbass and the key aspects of ensuring the security of Russia.
I will begin with what I said in my address on 21 February
2022. I spoke about our biggest concerns and worries, and about the
fundamental threats which irresponsible Western politicians created for Russia
consistently, rudely and unceremoniously
from year to year. I am referring to the eastward
expansion
of NATO, which is moving its military infrastructure ever
closer to the Russian border.
It is a fact that over the past 30 years we have been patiently
trying to come to an agreement with the
leading NATO countries regarding the principles of equal and indivisible
security in Europe. In response to our proposals,
we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or
attempts at pressure and blackmail,
while the North Atlantic
alliance continued to expand despite our protests and
concerns. Its military machine is moving and, as I said, is
approaching our very border.
Why is this happening?
Where did this insolent
manner of talking
down from the height of their exceptionalism,
infallibility and all-permissiveness
come from? What is the explanation for this contemptuous
and disdainful attitude to our interests and absolutely legitimate
demands?
The answer is simple. Everything is clear and obvious. In the
late 1980s,
the Soviet Union grew weaker and
subsequently broke apart. That experience should
serve as a good lesson for us, because it has shown
us that the paralysis of power and will is the first
step towards complete degradation and oblivion. We lost confidence for only one moment, but it
was enough to disrupt the balance of forces in the world.
As a result,
the old treaties and agreements are no longer
effective. Entreaties and requests do not help. Anything
that does not suit the dominant state, the powers that be, is
denounced as archaic, obsolete and useless.
At the same time, everything it regards as useful is presented as the
ultimate truth and forced on others regardless of the cost, abusively
and by any means available. Those who refuse to comply are subjected to
strong-arm tactics.
What I am saying now does not concern only Russia,
and Russia is not the only country that is worried about this.
This has to do with the entire system of international relations, and
sometimes even US allies. The
collapse of the Soviet Union led to a re-division of the world, and
the norms of international law that developed by that time
– and the most important of them, the fundamental norms that were adopted
following WWII and largely formalised its outcome – came in
the way of those who declared themselves the winners of the Cold War.
Of course, practice,
international relations and the rules regulating them had to take into
account the changes that took place in the world and in the balance of
forces. However, this
should have been done professionally, smoothly, patiently, and with
due regard and respect for the interests of all states and one’s own
responsibility. Instead, we saw a
state of euphoria created by the feeling of absolute
superiority, a kind of modern
absolutism, coupled with the low cultural
standards and arrogance of those who formulated and pushed through
decisions that suited only themselves. The
situation took a different turn.
There are many examples of this. First a bloody
military operation was waged against Belgrade, without the UN Security Council’s sanction
but with combat
aircraft and missiles used in the heart of Europe.
The bombing of peaceful
cities
and vital infrastructure went on for several weeks. I have to
recall these facts, because some Western colleagues prefer to forget
them, and when we mentioned the
event, they prefer to avoid speaking about international
law, instead emphasising the circumstances which they interpret as
they think necessary.
Then came the turn of Iraq, Libya and Syria.
The illegal use of
military power against Libya and the distortion of all the
UN Security Council decisions on Libya ruined the state,
created a huge seat of international terrorism, and pushed
the country towards a humanitarian
catastrophe, into the vortex of a civil war, which has
continued there for years. The tragedy, which was created
for hundreds
of thousands and even millions of people not only in Libya but in the
whole region, has led to a large-scale exodus from the Middle East and
North Africa to Europe.
A similar fate was also prepared for Syria. The combat
operations
conducted by the Western coalition in that country without the Syrian
government’s approval or UN Security Council’s sanction can
only be defined as aggression
and intervention.
But the example that stands apart from the above events is,
of course, the invasion of Iraq without any legal grounds. They used the pretext
of allegedly reliable
information available in the United States about the presence of weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq. To prove that allegation,
the US Secretary of State held up a vial with white power, publicly, for the
whole world to see, assuring the international community
that it was a chemical warfare agent created in Iraq. It later turned
out that all of that was a fake and a sham, and that Iraq did not have any chemical weapons. Incredible and
shocking but true. We witnessed lies made
at the highest state level and voiced from the high UN rostrum.
As a result we see a tremendous loss in human life, damage,
destruction, and a colossal upsurge of terrorism.
Overall, it appears that nearly everywhere, in many regions of
the world where the United States brought its law and order, this
created bloody, non-healing wounds and the curse of international
terrorism and extremism. I have only mentioned the most
glaring but far from only examples of disregard for international law.
This array includes promises not to expand NATO eastwards even by an inch. To reiterate: they have deceived
us, or, to put it simply, they have played
us. Sure, one often hears that politics is a dirty business. It could be, but it
shouldn’t be as dirty as it is now, not to such an
extent. This type of con-artist behaviour
is contrary
not only to the principles of
international relations but also and above all to the generally accepted
norms of morality and ethics. Where
is justice and truth here? Just lies and hypocrisy all around.
Incidentally, US
politicians, political scientists and journalists write and say that a
veritable “empire of lies”
has been created inside the United States in recent years. It is
hard to disagree with this – it is really so. But one should not be modest
about it: the United States is still a great
country and a system-forming power. All its
satellites
not only humbly and obediently say yes to and parrot
it
at the slightest pretext but also imitate
its
behaviour and enthusiastically
accept the rules it is offering them. Therefore, one
can say with good reason and confidence that the whole so-called Western bloc formed by the
United States in its own image and likeness is, in its entirety, the
very same “empire of lies.”
As for our country, after the disintegration of the USSR, given the entire
unprecedented openness of the new, modern Russia, its readiness to work honestly
with the United States and other Western partners, and its practically
unilateral disarmament, they immediately tried to put the final squeeze on us, finish
us off, and utterly destroy us. This is how it was
in the 1990s and the early 2000s, when the so-called collective West was actively
supporting separatism and gangs of mercenaries in southern Russia.
What victims,
what losses we had to sustain and what
trials we had to go through at that time before we broke the back
of international terrorism in the Caucasus! We remember this and will never forget.
Properly speaking, the attempts to use us in their own interests
never ceased until quite recently: they sought
to destroy
our traditional values and force on us their false values that would erode us, our people from within, the attitudes
they have been aggressively imposing on their countries, attitudes
that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature. This
is
not going to happen. No one has ever succeeded in doing this, nor will
they succeed now.
Despite all that, in December 2021,
we made yet another attempt to
reach agreement with the United States and its allies on the principles
of European security and NATO’s non-expansion. Our efforts were in
vain. The United States has not
changed its position. It does not believe it necessary to agree with
Russia on a matter that is critical for us. The
United States is pursuing its own objectives, while neglecting our interests.
Of course, this situation begs a question: what next, what are we to expect? If
history is any guide, we know that in 1940
and early 1941 the Soviet Union
went to great lengths to prevent war or at least delay its outbreak.
To this end, the USSR sought not to provoke
the potential aggressor until the very end by refraining
or
postponing the most urgent and obvious preparations it had to make to
defend itself from an imminent attack. When it
finally acted, it was too late.
As a result, the country was not prepared to
counter the invasion by Nazi Germany, which attacked our
Motherland on 22 June 1941, without declaring war. The country
stopped the enemy and went
on to defeat it, but this came at a tremendous cost.
The attempt
to
appease the aggressor ahead of
the Great Patriotic War proved to be a mistake which came
at a high cost for our people. In the first months
after the hostilities broke out, we lost vast
territories of strategic importance, as well as millions of lives. We
will not make this mistake the second time. We have no right to do so.
Those who aspire to global dominance have publicly
designated Russia as their enemy. They did so with impunity. Make no mistake, they had no reason to act this way.
It is true that they have considerable financial,
scientific, technological, and military capabilities. We
are aware of this and have an objective view of
the economic threats we have been hearing, just as our
ability to counter this brash and never-ending blackmail.
Let me reiterate that we
have no illusions in this regard and are extremely realistic in our assessments.
As for military affairs, even
after the dissolution of the USSR and losing a considerable part of its
capabilities, today’s Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear
states. Moreover, it has a
certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons. In this
context, there
should be no doubt for anyone that any
potential
aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it
directly attack our country.
At the same time, technology,
including in the defence
sector, is changing rapidly.
One day there is one leader, and tomorrow another, but
a military
presence in territories bordering on Russia, if we permit it to go
ahead, will stay for decades to come or maybe forever, creating an ever mounting and
totally unacceptable threat for Russia.
Even now, with
NATO’s
eastward expansion the situation for Russia has been becoming worse
and more dangerous by the year. Moreover, these past days NATO leadership has been blunt in its statements that
they need to accelerate and step up efforts to bring the alliance’s
infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders. In other words,
they have been toughening their position. We cannot stay idle and
passively observe these developments. This would
be an absolutely irresponsible
thing to do for us.
Any further expansion of the North Atlantic alliance’s
infrastructure or the ongoing efforts to gain a military foothold of the
Ukrainian territory are unacceptable for us. Of course, the question is not about NATO
itself. It
merely
serves as a tool of US foreign policy. The
problem is that in
territories adjacent to Russia, which I have to note is
our historical land, a hostile “anti-Russia” is taking shape. Fully
controlled from the outside, it is doing everything to attract NATO armed forces and obtain
cutting-edge weapons.
For the United States and its allies, it is a policy of
containing Russia, with obvious geopolitical dividends. For our
country, it is a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical
future as a nation. This is not an exaggeration;
this is a fact. It is not only a very real threat to our interests but to the very
existence of our state and to its sovereignty. It is the red line which we have spoken about on numerous occasions. They have
crossed it.
This brings me to the situation in Donbass.
We can see that the forces that staged
the coup in Ukraine in 2014 have seized power, are
keeping it with the help of ornamental election procedures and
have
abandoned the path of a peaceful conflict settlement. For eight years, for eight endless years we have been
doing everything possible to settle the situation by peaceful
political means.
Everything was in vain.
As I said in my previous address, you cannot look without compassion at what is
happening there. It became impossible to tolerate it. We
had to stop that atrocity, that genocide
of
the millions of people who live there and who pinned their hopes on
Russia, on all of us. It is their aspirations,
the feelings
and pain of
these people that were the main
motivating force behind our decision to recognise the independence of
the Donbass people’s republics.
I would like to additionally emphasise the following. Focused on their own goals, the leading NATO
countries are supporting the far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis in
Ukraine, those who
will never forgive the people of
Crimea and Sevastopol for freely making a choice to reunite with
Russia.
They will undoubtedly try to
bring war to Crimea just as they have done in Donbass, to
kill innocent people just as members of the punitive units of Ukrainian
nationalists and Hitler’s accomplices did during the Great Patriotic War. They have also openly laid
claim to several other Russian regions.
If we look at the sequence of events and the incoming
reports, the showdown between Russia and these forces
cannot be avoided. It is only a matter of time. They
are getting ready and waiting for the right moment. Moreover, they
went as far as
aspire to acquire nuclear weapons. We will not let this
happen.
I have already said that Russia accepted the new geopolitical reality
after the dissolution of the USSR. We have
been treating all new post-Soviet states with respect and will
continue to act this way. We
respect and will respect their sovereignty, as
proven
by the assistance we provided to Kazakhstan when it faced tragic events
and a challenge in terms of its statehood and integrity. However,
Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist while facing a
permanent threat from the territory of today’s Ukraine.
Let me remind you that in
2000-2005 we used our military to push back against terrorists in the
Caucasus and stood up for the integrity of our state. We preserved Russia. In 2014, we supported the people of
Crimea and Sevastopol. In 2015, we used our Armed Forces to create a
reliable shield that prevented terrorists from Syria from penetrating Russia. This was a matter of defending ourselves. We had no other
choice.
The same is happening today. They did not leave us any other option for
defending Russia and our people, other than the one we are forced to
use today. In these circumstances, we have to take bold and immediate action. The people’s republics of Donbass have asked Russia for
help.
In this context, in accordance with Article 51 (Chapter VII)
of the UN Charter, with permission of Russia’s Federation Council, and in
execution of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the
Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic, ratified by
the Federal Assembly on 22 February, I made a decision to carry out a
special military operation.
The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for
eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by
the Kiev regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify
Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody
crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian
Federation.
It is not our plan to occupy the Ukrainian territory. We do
not intend to impose anything on anyone by force. At the same time, we
have been hearing an increasing number of statements coming from the West
that there is no need any more to abide by the documents setting forth the
outcomes of World War II, as signed by the totalitarian Soviet regime. How
can we respond to that?
The outcomes of World War II and the sacrifices our people
had to make to defeat Nazism are sacred. This does not contradict the high
values of human rights and freedoms in the reality that emerged over the
post-war decades. This does not mean that nations cannot enjoy the right
to self-determination, which is enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter.
Let me remind you that the people living in territories which
are part of today’s Ukraine were not asked how they want to build their
lives when the USSR was created or after World War II. Freedom guides our
policy, the freedom to choose independently our future and the future of
our children. We believe that all the peoples living in today’s Ukraine,
anyone who want to do this, must be able to enjoy this right to make a
free choice.
In this context I would like to address the citizens of
Ukraine. In 2014, Russia was obliged to protect the people of Crimea and
Sevastopol from those who you yourself call “nats.” The people of Crimea
and Sevastopol made their choice in favour of being with their historical
homeland, Russia, and we supported their choice. As I said, we could not
act otherwise.
The current events have nothing to do with a desire to
infringe on the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. They are
connected with the defending Russia from those who have taken Ukraine
hostage and are trying to use it against our country and our people.
I reiterate: we are acting to defend ourselves from the
threats created for us and from a worse peril than what is happening now.
I am asking you, however hard this may be, to understand this and to work
together with us so as to turn this tragic page as soon as possible and to
move forward together, without allowing anyone to interfere in our affairs
and our relations but developing them independently, so as to create
favourable conditions for overcoming all these problems and to strengthen
us from within as a single whole, despite the existence of state borders.
I believe in this, in our common future.
I would also like to address the military
personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Comrade officers,
Your fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not
fight the Nazi occupiers and did not defend our common Motherland to allow
today’s neo-Nazis to seize power in Ukraine. You swore the oath of
allegiance to the Ukrainian people and not to the junta, the people’s
adversary which is plundering Ukraine and humiliating the Ukrainian
people.
I urge you to refuse to carry out their criminal orders. I
urge you to immediately lay down arms and go home. I will explain what
this means: the military personnel of the Ukrainian army who do this will
be able to freely leave the zone of hostilities and return to their
families.
I want to emphasise again that all responsibility for the
possible bloodshed will lie fully and wholly with the ruling Ukrainian
regime.
I would now like to say something very important for those
who may be tempted to interfere in these developments from the outside. No
matter who tries to stand in our way or all the more so create threats for
our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond
immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in
your entire history. No matter how the events unfold, we are ready. All
the necessary decisions in this regard have been taken. I hope that my
words will be heard.
Citizens of Russia,
The culture and values, experience and traditions of our
ancestors invariably provided a powerful underpinning for the wellbeing
and the very existence of entire states and nations, their success and
viability. Of course, this directly depends on the ability to quickly
adapt to constant change, maintain social cohesion, and readiness to
consolidate and summon all the available forces in order to move forward.
We always need to be strong, but this strength can take on
different forms. The “empire of lies,” which I mentioned in the beginning
of my speech, proceeds in its policy primarily from rough, direct force.
This is when our saying on being “all brawn and no brains” applies.
We all know that having justice and truth on our side is what
makes us truly strong. If this is the case, it would be hard to disagree
with the fact that it is our strength and our readiness to fight that are
the bedrock of independence and sovereignty and provide the necessary
foundation for building a reliable future for your home, your family, and
your Motherland.
Dear compatriots,
I am certain that devoted soldiers and officers of Russia’s
Armed Forces will perform their duty with professionalism and courage. I
have no doubt that the government institutions at all levels and
specialists will work effectively to guarantee the stability of our
economy, financial system and social wellbeing, and the same applies to
corporate executives and the entire business community. I hope that all
parliamentary parties and civil society take a consolidated, patriotic
position.
At the end of the day, the future of Russia is in the hands
of its multi-ethnic people, as has always been the case in our history.
This means that the decisions that I made will be executed, that we will
achieve the goals we have set, and reliably guarantee the security of our
Motherland.
I believe in your support and the invincible force rooted in
the love for our Fatherland.
Lausanne, the above was
published on the sixth day of the third
month of the year two thousand and
twenty-two.
