![]() It’s not the first time the Russian leader has been cautious over his health. The BBC reported Moscow spent $85m on quarantine measures and facilities for those who were due to meet him. The Kremlin’s chief propagandist, Dmitry Kiselyov, praised his bravery at the time, saying: “No head of state has so far dared to come so close to the infected”.īut the Russian leader has been scarcely seen since, instead holed up in his presidential residence outside Moscow for most of the pandemic, holding video conferences with his ministers and foreign leaders.Īccording to The Economist, Mr Putin also ordered the installation of special tunnels at his residence that would douse visitors in disinfectant before they went on to see him. Mr Putin was captured in a yellow hazmat suit as he visited Moscow’s main hospital at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in March last year. He doesn’t want Ukraine to exist as a sovereign, independent nation state,” Kirby said.Back in October, it was reported that anyone meeting him would be required to self-isolate for a week before entering Mr Putin’s airspace – a rule that applied to Russian Olympic medallists, journalists, senior officials and even World War II veterans. Putin’s strategic goals have changed here. National Security Council spokesman, responded to Putin’s speech as it was underway. Putin also acknowledged the challenges posed by Western sanctions, but argued that Russia has proven resilient to foreign pressure and has become more united. He denied underestimating Ukraine’s ability to fight back and insisted that his “special military operation” has proceeded as planned. Putin said he thinks “all the time” about the casualties that Russia has suffered in Ukraine, but insisted that NATO’s refusal to rule out Ukraine’s prospective membership and Kyiv’s refusal to adhere to a peace deal for its separatist conflict in the country’s east has left Moscow no other choice. In that context, he acknowledged that the fighting in Ukraine effectively amounts to a civil war, although the Kremlin calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation.” Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that Russians and Ukrainians are part of a single people and again denigrated Ukraine as an “artificial state” that received historic Russian lands from Communist rulers during the Soviet times. “Their goal is to make Russia more vulnerable and turn it into an instrument for fulfilling their geopolitical tasks, they have failed to achieve it and they will never succeed,” Putin said. The Russian leader said Russia isn’t the enemy of the West but will continue to oppose the purported diktat of Western neo-liberal elites, accusing them of trying to subdue Russia. “And they will also respond in kind if they are spoken to in a boorish manner.” “They need to respect the crown prince and Saudi Arabia, and they will respond in kind,” Putin said. He hailed Russia’s relations with China, but said he hadn’t warned Chinese President Xi Jinping about his intention to send troops into Ukraine when he visited Beijing days before that to attend the 2022 Winter Olympics.Īsked about Washinton’s threat to re-evaluate its relationship with Saudi Arabia over the Riyadh-led OPEC+ alliance’s move to cut oil production, Putin argued that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was acting in his nation’s interests and the need to stabilize global energy markets. “It seems to defy logic and common sense. “Why spoil relations with China at the same time?” Putin said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi come amid the U.S.-Russian showdown over Ukraine. Putin also expressed bewilderment about Washington’s policy on China, noting that tensions sparked by a recent visit to Taiwan by U.S. He mocked the allegations by Ukraine and the West that Russia was firing on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine as “ravings.” Russian troops have occupied the plant, Europe’s largest, since the early days of the conflict. He maintained that Russia knows the Ukrainian facilities working on the project. ![]() ![]() Putin said he personally ordered Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to call his foreign counterparts to tell them about the purported plot. ![]()
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