President Vladimir Putin has said he is suspending his participation in the deal that limits Russia and the United States’ strategic nuclear arsenal to 1,550 ready-to-use warheads. He made his most important speech this Tuesday morning (21) since 2021. In a populist tone, he announced a series of reforms to make the Russian economy and society more closed and militarized.
New Start is the latest agreement between Washington and Moscow to reduce the global nuclear arsenal. Controlling the number of active nuclear warheads placed on intercontinental missiles, submarines and bomber planes is aimed at reducing the possibility that Russia and the United States will fight a nuclear war.
The Russian president has said he is not canceling the deal but suspending Russian participation. He argued that he does not know what France and the United Kingdom are producing, and accused the United States of developing nuclear weapons of new types. In practice, Moscow was already preventing inspections of military installations that were foreseen in the agreement.
In practice, the suspension of the agreement raises the risk of nuclear war in the midst of a geopolitical environment of competition between the United States and its allies on the one hand and Russia and China on the other – which has been dubbed the Cold War 2.0.
Moscow wants to conquer more territories in Ukraine
Putin also hinted that Russia intends to conquer more territory from Ukraine soon. He justified the decision based on the military and financial aid that NATO countries (Western military alliance) are sending to Ukraine.
“The more ranged weapons arrive [à Ucrânia]the more we have to remove the threat from our borders,” Putin said.
The “State of the Nation” speech is held annually, but does not have a fixed date. It was due to take place in December last year, but was canceled due to several battle defeats suffered by Russia since September last year. It has been rescheduled for Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine and a period when the Kremlin has won limited victories on Ukraine’s eastern front.
Putin’s Distorted Interpretation of History
Putin spoke for nearly two hours and blamed the West for the war in Ukraine. The distortion of facts was promptly classified as “absurd” by President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor in the United States. Putin said that trillions of dollars were at stake and that the US was trying to destroy the system of international relations established after the end of World War II.
Targeting his domestic audience, the Russian president made false claims that Ukraine would be ruled by a neo-Nazi regime. He claimed that citizens of Ukraine would be hostages of this regime and that Russia wants to free them. At that point, he did not refer to the neighboring country by the name of Ukraine, but “New Russia”, in a distorted historical reference to the relationship between the two nations.
He also cited his personal interpretation of history that Ukraine began to be separated from Russia by Poland and the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 19th century. This view had already emerged in an article by Putin dated 2021 and later used to legitimize the war against Ukraine.
Economy must become more closed and war-oriented
Among the announcements made by Putin are also a social security system for families that lost men in the war and a housing finance system for those who join the armed forces. He also said that the Russian Armed Forces will undergo a deep restructuring based on lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.
There was also the announcement of programs for investment in transport infrastructure, incentives for small and medium-sized companies, through lower interest rates, and tax exemption for investments in artificial intelligence.
The Russian president also said that Russia was wrong to adopt the Western economic model after the demise of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Putin also said that he would move forward with measures to facilitate global trade through national currencies, without dependence on the dollar.
He drew applause from the audience when he said Russia’s business should not be dependent on unfriendly countries. Despite the country having absorbed the economic impact of several Western sanctions triggered by the war, the lack of access to technological components has made science in Russia languish.
The speech to the Russian Federal Assembly came a day after US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital. The gesture was aimed at securing Western support for the country, but was interpreted by Russia as a way of trying to eclipse Putin’s speech. Biden is due to speak later this Tuesday in Poland.
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