ISW: Putin puts off his annual address and cancels press conference over Ukraine war failures

Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed his annual address to the Russian parliament, indicating he is not certain of his ability to control the Russian information space amid growing criticism over Moscow’s invasion into Ukraine, the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) claims.

The Russian retreat from some of occupied Ukrainian territories has likely undermined Putin’s plans to “declare victory” during his parliamentary address, the ISW believes. The analysts add that another reason behind the postponement is “public dissatisfaction” with mobilisation.

Putin is possibly unsure that he can justify the price of his war when he addresses Russia and its elites, the institute concluded. At the same time, the Russian leader is likely still hopeful that he can deliver what the ISW describes as “a grandiose victory speech” in 2023, but he can also be putting off the moment when he will have to concede that Russia is unable to reach its goals.

According to the institute, the Russian president cancelled his annual press conference in an attempt to avoid questions about Russia’s military failures “without resorting to excessively obvious manipulation of questioners and questions”.

The Moscow Times claims citing government officials that

the decision to cancel the annual press conference made earlier this week was taken at the “last minute” by Putin personally.

Article author Pyotr Kozlov notes that officials believe the only topic worth discussing at the event to be the war in Ukraine. However, the Kremlin is fearing sabotage by Ukraine ahead of Putin’s press conference.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Putin would not be holding his annual press conference on 12 December, representing the first time he cancelled the event since 2001. The only exceptions were the years when Dmitry Medvedev was Russia’s president.