Putin is threatening to station missiles within reach of the West if the West allows Ukraine to deploy long-range weapons in Russia. In return, similar high-tech long-range missiles could be stationed within striking distance of those states that would allow Ukraine to deploy certain missiles on Russian territory, Putin told foreign journalists in St. Petersburg. He specifically mentioned American ATACMS as well as British and French missile systems. He initially left open where the Russian missiles would be stationed.
+++ 05:52 Armaments company: No quick deliveries to Ukraine possible +++
The managing director of the German arms manufacturer KNDS, Ralf Ketzel, believes his company is unable to supply Ukraine with any further material in a timely manner. “The ability to supply anything quickly has now been exhausted,” he told the internet portal web.de. “The strategic decision should have been made two years ago: this will be a war lasting several years. Then we could supply new material today.” But that could not be said with any certainty at the time.
+++ 04:22 Russia wants to expand relations with Taliban +++
Russian President Putin is calling for his country’s relations with the radical Islamic Taliban ruling Afghanistan to be expanded. “We have always believed that we have to face reality,” he said at a meeting with foreign journalists on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, where a Taliban delegation was also present. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that Moscow plans to remove the Taliban from the list of banned terrorist organizations, on which they have been since 2003, three and a half years after their return to power in Kabul.
+++ 03:32 Navalny’s widow: “Freedom of speech will defeat the poison of propaganda” +++
Yulia Navalnaya and the foundation of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny are awarded the Deutsche Welle Freedom Prize On February 16, Navalny died under unclear circumstances in a Siberian prison camp. In her acceptance speech, Navalnaya confirmed that she and the foundation would continue her husband’s work. Putin “killed my husband Alexei Navalny, but he did not silence his ideas,” says Navalnaya. At the same time, she warns against Russian misinformation and false experts in the European Union ahead of the European elections. Putin is trying to impose his agenda. “And he succeeds in doing just that again and again,” says Navalnaya. She concluded with the words: “We will keep fighting.” In the end, freedom of expression will triumph over the “poison of propaganda.”
+++ 02:44 Russia reports fire in oil refinery +++
According to Russian media, a fire has broken out in an oil refinery in Novochinsk, Russia. There were reportedly several explosions beforehand. The governor of the Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, reported a drone attack and emergency services were deployed. The refinery was already the target of a Ukrainian drone attack in March.
+++ 01:24 USA expects Russian naval exercises in the Caribbean +++
The US expects Russia to conduct military exercises in the Caribbean. “As part of Russia’s regular military exercises, we expect Russia to conduct increased naval and air force exercises near the United States this summer. These activities will culminate in a global Russian naval exercise in the fall,” a US government official told reporters. The exercises are considered part of routine naval activities and do not pose a direct threat to the United States. “This is about Russia showing that it is still capable of achieving some global power projection.” Nevertheless, the US Navy will observe the exercises.
+++ 00:04 Putin supports Russian cooperation with AfD +++
Russian President Putin defends meetings between Russian representatives and AfD politicians. “We will work with everyone who wants to cooperate with Russia,” Putin said at a meeting with representatives of major international news agencies in St. Petersburg. “We see no signs of neo-Nazism in the actions of the AfD,” the Kremlin chief said of the party, which is classified in parts as definitely right-wing extremist. There are no “systemic relations” with the German opposition party, but if someone advocates normal relations with Russia, Moscow supports them.
+++ 23:29 Putin: Russian invasion of NATO territory is “bullshit” +++
In a conversation with journalists from major international news agencies, Kremlin chief Putin dismissed Western fears of a Russian invasion of NATO territory as alleged “bullshit”. “You made up that Russia wants to attack NATO. Have you gone completely crazy? Are you as stupid as this table? Who made that up? That’s nonsense, you understand. Bullshit,” said Putin. He also rejected the claim that he threatened to use “some kind of nuclear weapon”. “But did I raise the possibility of using nuclear weapons? You did.”
+++ 22:20 Putin declares his willingness to investigate the murder of AFP journalist Arman Soldin +++
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared his readiness to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of AFP journalist Arman Soldin. “We will do everything we can,” Putin said at a meeting with journalists from international news agencies in St. Petersburg (see entry 21:25, 20:58 and 20:18). “We are ready to do that. But I don’t know how that will work in practice, since he died in a war zone,” he says. The Kremlin recently declared that Russia could not investigate the case of Arman Soldin because he was in Ukrainian-controlled territory. The video journalist Soldin was killed on May 9, 2023 at the age of 32 in a rocket attack near the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. At the time, he was reporting on Ukrainian soldiers near the front in Chasiv Yar in the east of the country.
+++ 21:51 Lavrov is looking for new allies in Africa +++
Russian state media report that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced during his visit to Burkina Faso that Moscow will send additional military supplies and trainers to Burkina Faso to strengthen the West African country’s defense capabilities. Following the Russian attack on Ukraine, Lavrov is visiting Africa for the ninth time. The trip is part of a diplomatic offensive by the Kremlin: Russia is trying to establish new relations. “Since the first contacts between our countries” shortly after the military coup in 2022, Russia and Burkina Faso have “worked very closely together in all areas, including the development of military and military-technical relations,” the Russian news agency TASS quoted Lavrov as saying. In return for military support, Russia is gaining an ally who does not support the war but does not criticize it either.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Traoré in the capital Ouagadougou.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
+++ 21:25 Putin expects no change in Russia policy after US election +++
Russian President Vladimir Putin does not expect any fundamental change in Washington’s policy towards Moscow after the US presidential election. “The result is not very important for us,” Putin said at a media meeting (see entry 20:58 and 20:18). in St. Petersburg. Russia will work with the president that the US citizens elect. In the past, Putin has said that he would prefer an election victory for incumbent Joe Biden because the president is more predictable. At the same time, Putin criticizes the legal proceedings against former President Donald Trump, who wants to run against Biden in the election on November 5.
+++ 20:58 Putin: Thousands of Ukrainians in Russian captivity +++
Vladimir Putin has put the number of Ukrainian prisoners of war after more than two years of invasion of the neighboring country at more than 6,000. The number is significantly higher than the number of Russian soldiers and officers in Ukrainian captivity, said the Russian president at a meeting with representatives of major international news agencies in St. Petersburg (see entry 20:18).
For the first time since the start of the war, Kremlin chief Putin meets representatives of news agencies at the economic forum in St. Petersburg.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
Ukraine has 1,348 Russians in captivity, while Russia has 6,365 prisoners from its neighbouring country. This could not be independently verified. When asked how high the Russian losses in the war were, Putin said that no party to the conflict had given any concrete information. But the numbers were in a similar proportion to those for prisoners. Here too, he claimed that Ukraine had significantly higher losses in the war than Russia. The Ukrainian side, on the other hand, emphasised that significantly more Russian soldiers than its own were killed in the war.
+++ 20:18 Putin warns against use of German weapons against targets in Russia +++
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against the use of German weapons by Ukrainian troops against targets on Russian territory. Such attacks would be a dangerous step, Putin said at a meeting with representatives of major international news agencies in St. Petersburg. The delivery of German tanks to Ukraine last year was already a shock for many in Russia. “If they now use missiles to attack facilities on Russian territory, it will completely destroy Russian-German relations,” Putin said. The media meeting in the Lakhta Center of the gas giant Gazprom is part of the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. It is the first international meeting of this kind since the start of Putin’s war against Ukraine.
You can read all previous developments here.