Russia could “theoretically” use nuclear weapons if there was a threat to its territorial integrity or existence, but according to the Russian president it is not necessary. “We have more weapons of this type [nuclear] than the NATO countries. They know it and they are urging us to start talks about reducing [arsenals]. Fuck them, as people say,” Putin proclaimed to applause. He called nuclear weapons a “competitive advantage” for Russia.
The Russian president announced that his country has already delivered the first batch of nuclear charges to Belarus, part of an armament that he plans to place in the neighboring country’s territory.
Putin pointed out that for Russia the use of nuclear weapons is theoretically possible only in case of a threat to the existence of the state. Right now there is no such threat, Putin said. The Russian leader spoke at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. There he spoke about Washington’s response, and has ventured that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, is an experienced politician, and that he should do what he deems appropriate.
“Nuclear weapons have been created to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state,” Putin insisted.
Cheered on by a complicit audience, Putin was especially contemptuous of the Ukrainian president and his origins. He assured that he has “many Jewish friends” who talk about the Ukrainian president and say that “[Volodimir] Zelensky is not a Jew, but he is a shame for the Jewish people.”
That was Putin’s response to American political scientist Dimitry Simes (who was moderating the plenary session in which the Russian president was taking part), when he told him that the West does not understand the accusations of Nazism against Ukraine, since President Zelensky is Jewish.
Putin recalled that 1.5 million Jews were killed on the territory of Ukraine during the Holocaust. “How can this be denied?” cried the president of the Russian Federation, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year that has targeted the civilian population of the Russian-speaking east of the country in particular.
As if his barrage were not enough, the audience in the room and the viewers of the live broadcast were shown a selection of frames about crimes committed in Ukraine and Poland during the Second World War. Putin agreed in the chair and said that he expected questions about Nazism in Ukraine and while he asked for these videos to be played.
MOSCOW, AGAINST THE JEWS
Although Vladimir Putin takes aim at Ukraine, Russia has a long history of anti-Semitism and has clashed with Jewish authorities in recent months. Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt left Russia in July last year after authorities pressured him to support the war in Ukraine. For years, Vladimir Putin made gestures to rebuild ties with Russia’s Jews, but that same month the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation threatened to close the Moscow office of the Jewish Agency (which organizes migration to Israel). ) after Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid condemned the war. This agency has already been banned in the Soviet Union, where Jews faced widespread discrimination. When Stalin died in 1953, he was preparing a general campaign of repression against the Jews.
“Russia already cracked down on Jews between 1880 and 1906, when around two million people left the Russian empire for the United States, and many were Jews,” recalls Steven Hall, a professor at the University of Bath. Between 1970 and 1988, about 291,000 Jews left the Soviet Union and in the 1990s another 128,000 went to Germany, according to his data. Hall argues that now with the war the “new Jewish exodus has been sudden.” Of the 165,000 Jews in Russia at the start of the war, his data suggests that 20,500 left in six months. Although the Russian government has not issued anti-Jewish messages, many have chosen to leave in the face of mounting repression reminiscent of the Soviet era, when Jews suffered from being seen as having dual loyalties. After Russia invaded Ukraine On February 24 of last year, Israel became one of the main destinations for a wave of emigration of people who chose to leave the Putin regime behind. The exodus that included many workers from Russia’s tech industry. Some 16,000 Russian citizens have registered as immigrants in Israel since the start of the war, more than triple the number in all of last year. Another 34,000 arrived as tourists.
True to the line of Russian propaganda, Putin claimed that it was “the Ukrainian regime” that started the war. “We were forced to use military force in an attempt to end this war,” the Russian leader said. The Russian leader expressed hope for him in wearing down the Ukrainians. “Soon Ukraine will stop using its materiel, [it] has nothing left, everything comes only from abroad. They will not fight for so long. And our defense industry is working day and night, we have multiplied by 2.7 the production of military materiel “said Putin, who pointed out that” we have a very large margin of security.” in “other places they fail”. For Putin, the crucial thing seems to be that the Ukrainians use “their strategic reserves and did not reach their objectives in any of the sections; their losses are more than 1 to 10 compared to the Russian army, that is a fact.” Putin put some unverified calculations on the table: “To date, the Ukrainian army has lost 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles. The Ukrainian army has no chance.”
The Russian leader bragged about destroying Western weaponry: “Their tanks are burning, several have been destroyed, including the Leopards… The F-16s will also burn, no doubt. But if [those weapons] are located outside Ukraine [entering Russia] and used in hostilities, we will have to see how and where we can hit those weapons used in hostilities against us.” And there he launched his eternal warning: “There is a serious danger that NATO will be further involved in this armed conflict.” Putin was hopeful with the return of foreign companies that have left the country: “If foreign manufacturers want to return again, coming to our market, and we hear those conversations more and more frequently, we don’t close the doors to anyone.” But at the same time, he found that abroad is a dangerous place for Russians to take their money: “That funds are earned in Russia and then deposited in accounts abroad carries obvious and often unacceptable risks, not only for the state, but also for the Russian companies themselves.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
