Vladimir Putin’s main political statements at the SPIEF plenary session

Speech by President Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was devoted to the Russian economy. In his almost one and a half hour speech, the president never mentioned the special military operation in Ukraine. But this topic immediately arose in the discussion after the president’s speech. It was moderated by Dmitry Simes, publisher of The National Interest magazine and TV presenter of Channel One. In addition to Vladimir Putin in the plenary session SPIEF Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebbun, who is in Russia on a state visit, participated.

One of the main statements of Vladimir Putin, which can be attributed to political topics, was the words that Russia had already delivered the first nuclear charges to Belarus. Moscow and Minsk were negotiating that part of the Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be delivered to a partner in the Union State. “It happened – the first nuclear charges were delivered to the territory of Belarus,” Putin said. According to him, the first part has now been delivered, and by the end of 2022 “this work will be completed.” The fact that Russia would deploy its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was first announced by Putin on March 25, 2023.

Putin said that for Russia, the use of nuclear weapons is possible if there is a threat to the existence of the Russian state. But there is no such need, because “the enemy on the front line has no success.” Attacks by Ukrainian drones in the Belgorod region and other regions, according to Putin, are designed to provoke Russia into tough retaliatory actions, in order to later say “how vicious they are, how cruel they are and cannot be dealt with, and point this out to all our partners.” Nuclear weapons ensure Russia’s security, but at the same time, discussions about the use of nuclear weapons reduce the lowering of the threshold for their use, Putin said.

He also noted that Russia has more such weapons than the NATO countries, so Russia is being persuaded to negotiate to reduce them. “Fuck them, as our people say,” Putin said. He again recalled that at the moment the only country in the world that used nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear power was the United States, which during the Second World War hit the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

With regard to the special military operation in Ukraine, Putin repeated the recent theses that were said at a meeting with war correspondents. According to him, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the counteroffensive are more than one in ten compared to the losses of the Russian army. At the same time, the Russian military continues to destroy the military equipment of Ukraine, including the one that was transferred by Western countries. “They lost 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles of various classes,” he said. According to him, Ukraine is making new attempts to counteroffensive, and the fighting is going on right now in the Zaporozhye direction.

Putin also talked about what is happening in relations with Western countries. According to him, Russia did not refuse to engage in dialogue with them, and it was not Russia that interrupted it. “Well, they don’t want to talk, don’t, they want to. And we will see at what point and what we can talk to them about,” he said. There are practically no contacts with the United States now, and they “simply transferred this dialogue to the sphere of arms supplies [Украине]”, Putin said. The Russian president also noted that NATO is being drawn “into the war in Ukraine” by supplying weapons to Kyiv, Putin said. He later added that if Western countries hand over F-16 fighters to Kiev, but at the same time they will be based outside of Ukraine, then “we will have to look at how we hit.”

At the same time, in his speech, Putin did not rule out that if there had been a different administration in the United States, it might have been possible to follow a peaceful plan for resolving the situation in Ukraine. Although at the same time, the president, answering Simes’ questions, said that European and Ukrainian politicians are now directly saying that when signing the Minsk agreements, they did not plan to implement them.

Putin also spoke about those who left Russia after the start of the special operation. According to him, he discussed this situation in negotiations with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, since many Russians left for this country. These talks took place before the plenary meeting, the UAE is the main guest SPIEF. Even more people left, according to the Russian president, to neighboring countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. He believes that there is nothing wrong with the departure of Russians, people can live in other countries, work there. “But it’s one thing to live in Moscow, in one of the best cities in the world with all its infrastructure, with all the social benefits and opportunities, and another thing to live in some other city. <…> It’s one thing to live among friends, the usual circle of connections, among relatives and just acquaintances whom you want to see from time to time, and another thing is to be apart from them, ”Putin said.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is being held for the 26th time. The main theme of this year’s forum is “Sovereign development is the basis of a just world. Let’s join forces for the sake of the next generations.” Vladimir Putin took part in the events of the second day of SPIEF, the business program of which was held on June 15-16. On Saturday, June 17, Putin will receive the leaders of a number of African states in St. Petersburg. They must submit their proposals for the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. In turn, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Kyiv on June 16, where he presented proposals for a peaceful settlement to the Ukrainian leadership.