‘Let the one without sin cast the first stone’ At St. Petersburg forum, Putin dismisses NATO rearmament, denies civilian toll in Kyiv strike, and quotes the Bible
On Wednesday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin spent more than two hours fielding questions from foreign journalists at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He dismissed fears of a Russian attack on NATO as a Western ploy to distract from domestic economic failures, repeated Kremlin talking points questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy, and claimed that any journalist close enough to witness a recent missile strike on Kyiv wouldn’t have survived. He also quoted the Bible. Meduza shares some of Putin’s more notable remarks.
On NATO and the West
We don’t consider any form of NATO rearmament a threat to the Russian Federation, because we are self-sufficient when it comes to ensuring our own security, and we are constantly improving our armed forces and our defensive capabilities.
Whatever NATO does — yes, of course it creates certain threats — but we will neutralize any threats that arise. There’s no doubt about that. In this sense, any rearmament or increases to NATO countries’ defense budgets, even up to five percent of GDP, are meaningless. […]
For centuries, there’s been periodic talk in the West about a threat from Russia. It was convenient for Western elites to use this [idea] to shape domestic policy — because with the phantom threat from the East, they could always squeeze more money out of taxpayers and justify their own economic failings. […]
It’s clear that today’s crisis in relations between Russia and Western Europe ostensibly began in 2014. But the problem wasn’t that Russia “annexed” Crimea. The problem was that Western countries helped bring about a coup in Ukraine. […] In the end, we made the decision to put a stop to this conflict — yes, by using our armed forces. But does that mean we’re planning to attack Eastern Europe? […]
Everyone understands that’s nonsense. And they’re lying to their own people just to keep pulling money out of their budgets [...] and to use that to explain away their failures in the economy and in social policy.
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On peace negotiations with Ukraine
I'm ready to meet with anyone — including [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky. That’s not the issue. If the Ukrainian state trusts someone to negotiate on its behalf, by all means, let it be Zelensky — that’s not the point. The question is: who will sign the document? Look, I didn’t make this up. You can say whatever you want in propaganda terms about the legitimacy of the current authorities. But when it comes to serious decisions, what matters isn’t the propaganda side — it’s the legal one. And what does the law say? Under Ukraine’s constitution, the president is elected for a five-year term. There is no provision for extending that term. […]
We don’t care who leads the negotiations — even if it’s the current head of the regime. I’m even prepared to meet [in person], but only if we’re talking about a final stage — not just sitting around endlessly divvying things up, but an endpoint. And that endpoint, that signature, has to come from legitimate authorities. Otherwise, you know how it goes: the next person comes along and throws it all in the trash.
On Russia’s June 17 attack on Kyiv that killed 28 people
If your journalists had actually seen entire residential blocks destroyed by our missiles, they likely wouldn’t be able to tell you about it — because they wouldn’t have survived. If they saw anything, it was from a distance. And the strike wasn’t on residential neighborhoods, but on defense industry facilities — on factories producing military equipment. That’s what we’re targeting, and we’re not making any secret of it.
On if he has made any mistakes while in power
Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone at me. Let’s leave it at that.
Cover photo: Vyacheslav Prokofiev / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / IMAGO / SNA / Scanpix / LETA