‘The West is playing with marked cards’

Putin’s Federal Assembly address in a nutshell

This is a summary of the main points from Vladimir Putin’s address to the Russian government. The statements below are not direct quotations, but Meduza’s concise paraphrase of what Russia’s president said in his two-hour speech before the Federal Assembly.

We live in watershed times marked by events of utmost importance. The West is playing with marked cards with regard to Ukraine, and admits it openly, without embarrassment. It’s the West that started this war, while we must use force to stop it. The more long-range weapons are brought into Ukraine from the West, the longer we’ll have to work on repelling the threat to our borders.

There will be no witch hunts: those who have left Russia will simply have this decision on their own conscience.

Everyone who takes part in the special military operation will get a two-week vacation every six months. We’re also going to set up a state fund for assisting families who lost their loved ones at the front.

The West has opened an economic front against us, but hasn’t been able to achieve anything. Russia’s GDP has dipped by 2.1 percent — while, a year ago, everyone said the economy was going to crash. We’ll take our economy to new frontiers. There’s even potential for a breakthrough.

The idea of the West as a safe harbor turned out to be false. Those who realized this too late have lost their assets. Ordinary Russians have no sympathy for those who lost their yachts and palaces abroad, and I myself say to those people: stop going around begging for alms, and stand with your motherland instead.

The presidential election will take place in 2024, in accordance with the law. Gubernatorial elections will be held in September 2023, also in compliance with constitutional democratic procedure.

Russia is suspending its participation in the New START treaty. We have information that the U.S. is planning to do some nuclear testing. If they do it, we’ll do it too.