Confusing timing
What does the watch of Russia’s defense minister reveal?
By Jan Ganger
02/22/2022, 12:04 p.m
Vladimir Putin convenes his Security Council to discuss recognition of the “People’s Republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk. The members’ advice is not surprising – but the defense secretary’s watch is a mystery.
Vladimir Putin’s meeting with his Security Council was quite remarkable – if only because of the location and the unusual seating arrangement: The president sat behind a massive desk in a pompous room from the time of the tsars. The members of the Security Council – including intelligence chiefs and ministers – sat on chairs about 20 meters away like frightened schoolboys and girls who have to report to the principal. As if for rapport, they then approached a desk when it was their turn.
Officially, it was a request from the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine to be recognized as independent by Russia. But the defense minister’s watch may indicate that the meeting was taped before what Russian TV called “live” — well before the separatist leaders’ request.
Onlookers noticed Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu’s watch. It read 12:52 p.m., although the meeting started at just before 5 p.m. According to the AFP news agency, among others, the recording would actually have taken place before the rebels’ official request. It remains unclear whether the defense minister’s watch might have stopped – or was wrong.
According to comments under the broadcast of the Russian channel RT on YouTube, it was initially announced as “live”. Only when viewers became aware of the Secretary of Defense’s watch did RT mark the transmission as a recording.
At the meeting, Putin asked the members of the Security Council to assess whether Russia should recognize the “people’s republics”. The atmosphere is strangely nervous at times. The head of foreign intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin, faltered when Putin asked him if he was in favor of further negotiations with the US and NATO.
Naryshkin initially advocated giving the West one last chance to put pressure on Ukraine to implement the Minsk peace plan. “Are you proposing the start of negotiations or the recognition of the sovereignty of the republics? Be clear!” Putin snapped at him. “I will support the decision …” Naryshkin said. “‘I will support’ or ‘I support. Be clear, Sergei!” “I support the proposal to include the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in the Russian Federation,” said Naryshkin.
But Putin didn’t want to hear that either. He didn’t ask that question, he said, shaking his head and adding: “We don’t talk about that. We don’t discuss it. We talk about recognizing their independence or not.” That, too, caused wild speculation and gallows humor: maybe Naryshkin, like Shoigu, was just a little ahead of the times.