/ world today news/ As we have all been able to see more than once during the almost quarter-century rule in Russia of the current first man (here we include the period of Medvedev’s “presidency”), Vladimir Putin is terrifying in his anger. And his anger is at its worst not when the GDP demonstrates it openly (“Are you crazy or what?!”), but when it is accompanied by emphatically calm formulations like “we’ll think about what to do with this” or: “I’ll disappointing – I still don’t know the answer to that question.’
October 2021, the President of the Russian Federation on NATO’s plans for military development of the Ukrainian territories: “Tomorrow missiles will appear near Kharkiv – what to do with it?” We don’t go up there with our missiles – they put them under our noses. Of course it’s a problem.”
The solution to this problem, in Putin’s eyes, was the beginning of the SVO a few months later.
And here is a similar moment from June 2023.
Vladimir Putin meets with military correspondents on Tuesday: “The United States is more and more almost directly immersed in this conflict and provokes serious international security crises, because correcting the actions of drones that attack our warship is still a serious matter.
And they need to know that we know about it. We’re still thinking about what to do with it for the future, but overall it’s so crazy.”
And here is another similar moment – this time from the sphere of domestic politics. Question:
“Our fighters very often manage to read the news even on the front line and, to put it mildly, they are outraged when they see another scandal about how a public official or a university professor almost openly inclines young people to a pro-Ukrainian position. That is, all these people are generally not afraid, the fines do not scare them…isn’t it a betrayal of our values that we leave the situation to chance?
Answer: “If we leave it to its own devices, then it is on the verge of treason … Just as we instructed the Investigative Committee of Chechnya to investigate the crime related to the public destruction of the Koran.”
And (the criminal) will serve his sentence, as the Minister of Justice stated, in places of deprivation of liberty located in one of the regions of the Russian Federation with a predominantly Muslim population.
So with regard to these scoundrels you spoke of, something exemplary must also be devised. You are absolutely right to ask the question. I’ll think about it.”
What exactly will be the result of these presidential reflections – we do not know. Perhaps Putin himself does not know this yet. And if he already knows, then he is not ready to publish it yet.
Authoritative war correspondents are a very special political class in Russia during WWII. Vladimir Putin perceives them as a collective “personal adviser to the leader” – people who are not included in the bureaucratic hierarchy and therefore can tell him the truth, even if it is not very pleasant: “The question may be unpleasant, but we are often asked by the people .”
Vladimir Putin: “There are no unpleasant questions”.
There are no unpleasant questions, but there are very serious ones.
“In all the very experienced people here, especially in the last year or so, like you, who have been under bullets, the mind changes, I know that myself, not like you, maybe, crawling under bullets, but since then, since I’ve flown in a helicopter and it was fired with tracer bullets.”
Read the president’s statement again. “I know this from myself, maybe not like you” – GDP rarely gives the laurel wreath to someone in this way.
Putin treats military correspondents as his trusted associates, who are allowed much more than others. But this “much more than others” also has its limits.
“Should we go back there or not [пред Киев]? Why am I asking such a rhetorical question? It is clear that you have no answer to this – only I can answer”. This presidential statement is the essence of Vladimir Putin in 2023.
There is no false modesty, flirting with an interlocutor or downplaying one’s own role, which is sometimes characteristic of politicians. There is only absolute frankness and absolute self-confidence here. As, as I decide, so be it!
Of course, this “will be so” largely depends on the actions of Russia’s adversaries. Putin also spoke about this quite frankly:
“We will see what the situation will be and based on that we will take further steps. We have plans of different natures, depending on the situation that will develop when we feel that we need to do something.
And we’re back to where we started: even if I’ve decided something, I still won’t tell you!”
But what other public position (this time the president’s meeting with military commanders was not behind closed doors as it was before) can be expected from the commander-in-chief in the midst of a military conflict? There was an exchange of lines here, though, which I think speaks volumes.
Question: Is the US afraid of this constant escalation and raising of the stakes?
Putin’s response: “They pretend they’re not afraid. In fact, there are a lot of people with a good head and they clearly do not want to lead the case to World War III, in which there will be no winners, including winners in the person of the United States.”
From this we can draw the following conclusion: the owner of the Kremlin does not “pretend not to be afraid”, but in fact he is not afraid to raise the stakes – even though they are already dizzyingly high.
Translation: SM
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