Breakdown at celebration event
Putin’s speech on Crimea annexation suddenly interrupted
3/18/2022, 3:39 p.m
A stadium in Moscow full of flags, cheering Russians and the Z symbol everywhere: Russian President Putin steps onto the stage in a knitted turtleneck to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea. But suddenly the transmission breaks off. A server error, according to the Kremlin.
On the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin praised the “special military operation” in Ukraine as a “heroic” mission by the Russian army. All plans would be implemented, Putin said in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium in front of tens of thousands of cheering Russians, with a view to the war in the neighboring country. A few minutes after the start of the speech, which Putin gave in a knitted turtleneck, the broadcast on state television was interrupted without giving any reason. The speech ended mid-sentence and the television showed recorded images. It was initially unclear what had happened.
Instead of the Putin speech, video snippets could be seen: in the stadium, people waved the Russian state flag and flags with the letter Z, which stands for the “special military operation”. People shouted: “For Russia. For victory.” Above the stage on which Putin appeared was written: “For a world without Nazism”. Several minutes later, Putin appeared again – his speech was repeated again from the beginning, this time without a break to the end. The Kremlin chief emphasized that all plans would be implemented in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained the mysterious interruption with a technical server error, as reported by the Ria Novosti news agency. The reason for the performance was the eighth anniversary of the incorporation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea on March 18, 2014. The Kremlin sees the area as part of Russia. This is not recognized internationally.
Ukraine war does not go according to plan
Contrary to what he claimed in his jubilee speech, the “special military operation” in Ukraine is not going according to plan for the Kremlin. According to the British newspaper “The Telegraph”, citing a British minister, Putin had one of the highest-ranking Russian military officers, General Roman Gavrilov, arrested. However, the report was denied in the Duma, the Russian parliament. Accordingly, Gavrilov merely resigned.
Russia’s National Security Council met in Moscow this morning to discuss the situation in Ukraine. “The meeting discussed the current international situation and continued the exchange of views on the ongoing special operation of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine,” Peskov said, according to Interfax.