The President’s Address to the Federal Assembly will take place on February 21

The President’s address to the Federal Assembly will take place on February 21. This was stated by the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov.

“On February 21, the President of the Russian Federation will address the Federal Assembly. It will take place in Gostiny Dvor,” Peskov told reporters. Peskov said that a list of invitees would now be formed. According to him, there are traditional categories of invitees, but “due to the specifics of the moment” there will be a new category.”

When asked by journalists whether representatives of foreign media would be accredited for a message, Peskov said: “We have not yet made this decision. We will let you know.” Peskov said that Putin would focus in the message on the “current situation.”

When asked if this means that the message will talk about a special operation in Ukraine, the economy and social problems, Peskov said: “Yes.” “We can certainly say that they will be invited,” Peskov said, answering the question whether the participants in the special operation belong to the “new category of invitees”.

A Vedomosti source previously close to the presidential administration saidthat February 21 is the “tentative date” for the message, with a final decision to be made on Friday, February 10. At the beginning of the week, three high-ranking parliamentarians said that the message would be held on February 20-22.

According to the Constitution, the president addresses the Federal Assembly with annual messages on the situation in the country, the main directions of the domestic and foreign policy of the state.

The last time the president delivered a message was on April 21, 2021. Traditionally, since 2019, the president delivered a message on Wednesdays, and before that, on Thursdays. In 2022, the presidential address did not take place. Preparations for it were carried out at the beginning of 2022, Vedomosti wrote, and it was supposed to take place in February-March of the same year. But work on it was suspended, because on February 21, the president signed decrees recognizing the DPR and LPR as independent states, and then, on February 24, announced the start of a military operation in Ukraine.

Putin did not deliver a message in 2017 either. As a result, he addressed the Federal Assembly on March 1, 2018, when the presidential election campaign was underway. In December 2022, journalists asked the President why the message did not take place. Putin just referred to a similar situation in 2017.

“The dynamics of events is very large, the situation is developing very dynamically, so it was very, not very, but difficult to fix the results and specific plans for the near future right at a particular moment in time. We will do this at the beginning of the year, of course,” the President told reporters. At the same time, he noted that in one way or another in his speeches he touched on things that could be said in the message.