Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that Russia was suspending its participation in the Russian-American New Start treaty on nuclear disarmament, worsening the rupture with the West which he accuses of having provoked an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. In the process, Russian diplomacy summoned the American ambassador to Moscow to deliver a note demanding that the United States withdraw NATO “soldiers and equipment” in Ukraine, a reference to the military aid that Kiev receives of Westerners.
In an hour and forty-five minute speech reminiscent of the Cold War era with its virulent anti-Western rhetoric, Vladimir Putin also vowed to “methodically” continue his offensive in Ukraine. Unimpressed, the Ukrainian presidency reacted by promising to “hunt and punish” Russia, three days before the first anniversary of the start of the invasion.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan denounced the “absurdity” of Vladimir Putin’s anti-Western speech.
“Irresponsible”, says Washington
Remote duel? US President Joe Biden was also due to make a long-awaited speech in Warsaw, where he is after a surprise visit to Kiev on Monday during which he still promised arms to the Ukrainians. But it was Vladimir Putin who was the first to make an impression by announcing the suspension of the New Start treaty on nuclear disarmament, saying he was also ready to resume nuclear testing.
“They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us, attack our nuclear sites, that’s why I have to announce that Russia is suspending its participation in the (New) Start treaty”, said the Russian president . Signed in 2010, this treaty is the last bilateral agreement of its kind binding Russians and Americans and aims to limit their nuclear arsenals. Russia had already announced in early August suspending planned inspections of its military sites.
Vladimir Putin also called on Russian forces to be “ready to carry out nuclear weapons tests”, in case the United States were to do so first. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Russia’s decision on New Start “very disappointing and irresponsible”, while assuring that the United States “remains ready to discuss strategic weapons” with Moscow. A Russian measure that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for his part said “regrets”.
Westerners want to “end it”
In his first state of the nation address in two years, Vladimir Putin vowed to fulfill “step by step, carefully and methodically” the objectives of his offensive in Ukraine which has been marred in recent months by a series of military setbacks humiliating for Moscow but also, more recently, by small advances in the east.
“Just during the speech of the bloodthirsty dictator Putin, the enemy struck residential buildings, critical infrastructure”, killing at least six people, in Kherson, a southern city recaptured by the Ukrainian army in November, has to in this regard announced a regional military official. Westerners want to “finish us once and for all”, thundered Vladimir Putin, accusing Washington and its European allies of bearing “responsibility for the fueling of the Ukrainian conflict and its victims”.
“But they are not unaware that it is impossible to beat Russia on the battlefield,” added the master of the Kremlin, before thanking “all the Russian people for their courage and determination” and calling for a minute of silence in memory of the Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.
Referring to the international sanctions that are hitting Russia, Vladimir Putin believes that Westerners “have not achieved anything and will not achieve anything”, the Russian economy having resisted better than anticipated by the experts. “We have ensured the stability of the economic situation, protected the citizens”, he noted, judging that the Westerners had not managed to “destabilize our society”. A sign that the internal repression accompanying the military offensive is likely to worsen, Vladimir Putin also declared that “those who chose to betray Russia” should “be held responsible before the law”.
“Absurd”
The statements of the Russian head of state present a vision of the conflict radically different from that exposed the day before in Kiev by Joe Biden, who should not fail to respond to Vladimir Putin in his speech expected on Tuesday around 4:30 p.m. GMT, from the royal castle of Warsaw. “kyiv is standing up. Democracy is standing up”, launched the American president during his visit to Ukraine.
But beyond a simple military conflict, Vladimir Putin, who has never ceased to approach the Orthodox Church of which he wants to be the defender, presents this confrontation as a clash of civilizations between a Russia attached to “traditional” values ” and a “decadent” West. On Tuesday, he thus accused Westerners of having erected “the perversion and abuse of children, up to pedophilia, (…), as a norm”.
Without even waiting for the end of Vladimir Putin’s speech, the White House denounced the “absurdity” of the Russian president’s anti-Western rhetoric. “No one is attacking Russia. There is a kind of absurdity in the idea that Russia was under some form of military threat from Ukraine or anyone else,” he said. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.