Sarts: The Russian president’s speech was weak and without clear consistency
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech was weak and without a clear consistency, this is the opinion expressed by the director of NATO’s Strategic Communication Excellence Center, Jānis Sārts, to the LETA agency. When asked what the target audience of Putin’s speech was, Sarts stated that it is difficult enough to say, because he tried to include a bit of everything in it. In his opinion, if you really need to look for a unifying element for the part of the speech, it would probably be that Russia is in conflict with the West. “In one part of the speech, Putin talks about what changes and fundamental challenges Russia is facing. Finally, the Russian president called the war in Ukraine not a “special military operation” but a war. Then, in his speech, the Russian president called out what the policy of saving Russian rivers will be and which government regulations have been ordered to be adjusted. It is a very pronounced inconsistency, therefore it is difficult to understand what audience it was all intended for,” said the director of NATO’s Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication. In Sart’s view, the beginning and especially the end of Putin’s address were intended for the West – the Russian president announced the suspension of the Strategic Offensive in the Arms Reduction Treaty (“New START”). Likewise, the director of NATO’s Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication concludes after Putin’s speech that the Kremlin is in enough chaos if such a speech is broadcast to the people.
“We also understand the circumstances that all attention in Russia will be increasingly focused on the president’s speech. Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian president, said that this speech will be read all over the world, but at the other end is this product – the speech. It is obvious that some kind of chaos has started in the Kremlin and the inability to produce a moderately convincing and consistent message,” Sarts said. Asked whether the Russian president’s speech could have been influenced by the fact that US President Joe Biden arrived in Kyiv on Monday, Sarts said that it most likely influenced the overall situation. It is significant not only that Biden was on a visit to Kyiv, but also that the United States informed Russia of Biden’s visit a few hours in advance and warned it not to make any aggressive moves. “As we understand from open sources, US forces were ready to respond. In principle, Russia listened to the advice of the United States. It’s a signal to all of us, but it also created a certain sense of humiliation around the Kremlin and in the Kremlin, thus affecting the spirit or atmosphere of the speech,” Sarts said, adding that Putin’s speech should not be taken too seriously. Asked whether one can read between the lines of Putin’s speech about its further plans in Ukraine, in the opinion of the director of NATO’s Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication, Putin was most truthful at the beginning of the war, when both the Russian president spoke and there were various publications about what he would try to do in Ukraine. Sarts emphasized that the goals of the war were later changed depending on what was militarily possible. He pointed out that Putin’s speech is probably not a good landmark to understand what Putin and the Kremlin want to achieve in Ukraine. In Sārt’s opinion, the speech is not the place where the answers to these questions could be found.
Putin about the war in #Ukraine:
– We did everything to solve the problem by peaceful means, but another scenario was being prepared behind our backs
– The war began “for the sake of protecting people on our historical lands and eliminating the threat of the neo-Nazi regime” pic.twitter.com/qItFi9EC2w
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 21, 2023
