Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the results of the US elections in November 2024 will not alter Washington’s position towards Moscow and its invasion of Ukraine, whether the Democrats or the Republicans win. “I believe that there will be no major changes in the direction of US foreign policy towards Russia, no matter who is elected president,” the president said during a colloquium at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, in the southeast of Russia. Putin has assured that he will not negotiate with Kiev as long as the Ukrainian forces maintain their fight, and this time he has accused the West, which on other occasions he has called perverted and flawed, of wanting to “catholicize and drag Russia under the Holy Campus [de la Iglesia católica]”.
The Russian president has assured that not even former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump will change North American policy towards the invasion. “Mr. Trump says that he will solve the problems in a few days [estadounidenses] most pressing issues, including the Ukrainian crisis. This cannot but make us happy, but he imposed sanctions against Russia while he was president,” recalled Putin, who could not help but show his joy at the trials opened against Trump for trying to annul the 2020 elections and illegal possession of classified documents, among others. other charges.
“Everything that is happening in the United States is good for us,” Putin highlighted. “What is happening to Trump is political persecution,” the Russian leader added before emphasizing that Washington “has thus exposed its internal problems.”
Putin has been full of praise, however, for magnate Elon Musk, another rising figure in North American politics who has recently acknowledged that he prevented access to his Starlink satellite network to Ukraine when his forces were preparing to attack the Russian fleet using its coordinates. “Elon Musk is, without a doubt, an exceptional person in business. This must be recognized. “He is an active and talented businessman,” said the Russian president.
The president made these statements in the far east of Russia, where he plans to meet with Kim Jong-un. The North Korean dictator has already arrived by train in the region where both leaders will hold a key summit: Moscow needs Korean ammunition to continue its offensive, while Pyongyang, an internationally ally, is looking for a strong foreign ally.
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Putin has warned during his appearance that he will not stop his war as long as the Ukrainian armed forces do not give up. “In many places, those who act or want to act as mediators ask us if we are ready to stop hostilities. How can we stop hostilities if the other side is carrying out a counteroffensive?” Putin rhetorically asked.
Putin has boasted of having new troops despite Western intelligence reports that the Russian armed forces do not have enough personnel to rotate. “We carried out a partial mobilization (in autumn 2022) and called 300,000 people. Now, in the last six or seven months, 270,000 people have voluntarily signed service contracts with the armed forces and volunteer units,” the Russian leader noted.
However, Putin has not clarified how many of these documents have been sealed by combatants who were already part of other units and, therefore, are not new soldiers: the Ministry of Defense established that since July 1 all foreign troops, including Wagner’s mercenaries had to sign a service contract with the organization. “Our men, the Russians, know what is expected of them, that they can give their lives for their country, be seriously injured, and still do it consciously and voluntarily,” the president praised.
On the other hand, Putin has downplayed the West giving Ukraine F-16 jets and other modern weapons. “Will this change anything? I think not,” the Russian president has admitted in public. Likewise, he took a jab at Washington for his inconsistency. “The US administration believed that the use of cluster munitions is a war crime, he said so publicly. Now they themselves are supplying cluster munitions to the combat zone in Ukraine,” said Putin, whose forces also use this type of weapons on the front.
Putin has on other occasions accused the West of being dominated by “degeneration” and vice, even highlighting that European and American families have “father one, father two and father three.” However, in his last intervention he characterized his enemy in a completely different way: “The West has tried for a long time to Catholicize Russia, to drag it under the Holy See,” the Russian leader said, characterizing this supposed crusade as “the spiritual aspect.” of their geopolitical confrontation.”
Internally, Putin has also sent a dark message to businessmen and senior officials who have left Russia because of their disagreement with the invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, the Russian president cited two important names exiled in Israel.
One has been Anatoly Chubais, father of Russian privatizations after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and a senior official very close to the Kremlin in the last two decades. Former head of the state consortium focused on nanotechnology, Rusnano, has been accused by Putin of ruining the company. “Thank God there are no criminal proceedings or prosecutions. Maybe [su huida] is due to the fact that he fears that ultimately all this will lead to the emergence of some criminal cases. Therefore, he would also be in Israel illegally,” Putin has dropped in reference to a possible extradition request.
On February 24, 2022, the day Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine by land, sea and air, Chubais posted on his social networks a photo of the opponent Borín Nemtsov, murdered in 2015 in front of the Kremlin after leading protests against the military intervention Russian in the Ukrainian region of Donbas.
The other exile pointed out by Putin has been the founder of Yandex, the Russian Google, Arkady Volozh. “He lives in Israel, and I imagine that he lives well and has good relations with the authorities, so he is forced to make certain statements. He remained silent for a long time, but decided to make a statement. Well, may God give him health and may he have a good life there,” the president warned. Volozh wrote an anti-war letter in August and deleted his Russian nationality from his personal website to define himself as: “Israeli technology entrepreneur, computer scientist, investor and philanthropist born in Kazakhstan.”
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