Russian President Vladimir Putin recorded a New Year’s speech to Russian citizens against the backdrop of a group of people in military uniform. video published on the internet shortly after the start of the new year 2023 in the easternmost regions of Russia, where the president’s speech was already televised.
According to Putin, 2022 was a year of “difficult and necessary decisions” that “clearly separated courage and heroism from betrayal and cowardice”. The events of 2022, when Russian troops, by order of Putin, launched a large-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the Russian president has repeatedly called fateful and turning points. Putin recalled the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, calling them historically Russian lands, and affirmed that “moral correctness” in the conflict is on Moscow’s side.
Putin separately congratulated the participants in the so-called special military operation on the New Year, saying that the people against whom he recorded the appeal were also his participants. Siberia Edition Reality at the same time affirmationsthat behind Putin’s New Year’s speech is the same woman who was previously photographed with him in the guise of a “Novgorod fisherman” on Christmas Day in January 2017.
Putin concluded his speech with the words that it is necessary to go “only forward” and “win”.
There were no New Year’s attributes in the video message. All his previous New Year’s greetings (except the very first) Putin wrote against the background of the Kremlin. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, this appeal was registered at the headquarters of the Rostov-on-Don Southern Military District. Putin is said to have visited him on Saturday morning.
Television also showed footage of Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu talking to the military. Putin, in particular, said that Russia must “either surrender or fight”, but “it is impossible to surrender, we must go forward”. It was also reported that he presented the order to the commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin.
- Separate video message noted Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, who made extremely harsh statements against Ukraine during the year. He called the aim of the war “to end the Nazi regime in Kiev”.
