Vladimir Putin’s bizarre press conference: Dad will take care of it

What is the problem in Germany?

Vladimir Putin took a lot of time on Thursday for his annual press conference, in which he also answered questions from Russian citizens. The event in central Moscow lasted longer than four hours this year, which isn’t even a record. So he also had time to analyze the situation in other European countries based on his own experiences.

Putin remembers a birthday party to which his friend Gerhard Schröder once invited him. However, that was a long time ago. “There was a little concert,” he says, “and everyone sang songs in English.” Even the girls’ choir from Hanover was there and performed songs in the foreign language, Putin is surprised. Only a Russian Cossack collective shone with German songs. The Russian president claims that the Germans were very embarrassed afterwards and then asks himself: Can a country in which people sing English songs really be sovereign? “The post-war years took away the Germans’ feeling for their homeland and their sovereignty,” the president concluded. And that’s why the German economy is doing badly now.

Europe is still very important for Putin, it is the benchmark. However, it mainly serves as a haven of evil in propaganda. If there is a problem in Russia, then in Putin’s view the problem in Europe is definitely worse. Birth rates, immigration – when Russian citizens ask about them, Putin says that these problems exist in Russia, but are at least not as bad as they are supposed to be in Europe.

Putin’s speech on the economy sounds similar. He praises them as stable, but calls inflation and price increases an “alarming signal.” In Russia it is now more than nine percent, and the key interest rate had to be raised to 21 percent. The ruble collapsed in December. The economy is growing, but only because the state is pumping billions into the war economy: military spending recently rose by 70 percent. Anyone who hears this differently must understand that the growth rates are of course an average.

Putin’s lengthy meeting is a tradition; it is a huge propaganda show that is broadcast live on television and on the Internet. The creators claimed that they had more than two million questions, pre-sorted by artificial intelligence, as they said again and again during the course of the show.

The president appears like an all-powerful, all-knowing, generous and generous tsar who knows the answer to every question. He has to take care of everything himself; no question is too detailed for him. How many cinemas do the settlements in the Arctic need, how high are the children’s fares on the local airlines and Korolyov in the Moscow area urgently needs a third motorway access!

A woman from Nizhny Novgorod says on the phone that there are so few cardiologists in the polyclinics in her region and that she can’t get an appointment for her father. A journalist worries that America, Japan and Europe could sink into the oceans due to climate change and that people will then flee to Russia, which, according to this world view, is of course the only one that will not sink, like Noah’s Ark for the world’s population. What then?

Putin’s political scientists had apparently thought about repeatedly describing the country in this program as a house in which Putin had to clean up and ensure order. The Russians are a big family – Putin talks about it again and again. He also claims that there are now more Ukrainians living in Russia than in Ukraine – he simply counts the occupied territories. Of course, it’s also about the Russian war of aggression, which in Russia’s public narrative is simply called SWO, an abbreviation for “Special Military Operation.”

Independent observers estimate that around 150,000 Russian men have died in this war so far, but the country’s people have nevertheless become accustomed to it. When asked about their greatest concern in a survey by the independent Levada Center, most people named rising prices, then corruption, then the problem of immigration and only then the war. Many people want peace negotiations, as surveys show, but when it comes to the conditions for peace, the only thing that is conceivable according to those surveyed is a capitulation by Ukraine. It sounds similar in Putin’s presentation.

He claims in his press show that he is ready to negotiate at any time, but not with Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he does not consider to be the legitimate president of Ukraine. A journalist wants to know whether he believes that the West has correctly understood the new nuclear doctrine. Putin then threatens Ukraine again: If Russia is threatened by a state that allies itself with nuclear powers against Russia, then “we reserve the right to use a nuclear bomb against them.” After all, in a survey, 29 percent of Russians surveyed believed the use of weapons of mass destruction against Ukraine was justified.

A Russian journalist asks how the war has changed Putin. “I joke less and have almost stopped laughing,” says Putin. A correspondent for the Russian daily RBK wants to know whether he would subsequently start the war, which she calls a special operation, again: Putin had expected a quick victory in February 2022. Putin replies that he would have started it sooner. “We started these events without any special preparation. We should have seriously prepared.” He condemns the assassination attempt earlier this week on Russian General Igor Kirillov, who died in an explosive explosion outside his home in Moscow. The Russian security services would have made a huge mistake by not preventing the murder.

Putin lets critical questions roll off his back in his usual manner. Putin did not achieve the goal of the special operation, many Russian soldiers were dead, and his ally Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, analyzes the correspondent for the US television channel NBC News. The Russian president is therefore significantly weakened. “What kind of compromise will you offer Donald Trump when you meet,” he asks.

Putin claims that he suffered no defeat in Syria. “You and the people who pay your salary want to portray this as a defeat for Russia.” Russia is in contact with all groups that currently control the country. Most of them are interested in Russia being able to keep its two military bases. He has not yet met Assad, who found refuge in Moscow.

The questions from two foreign journalists are the only critical ones during this mammoth event, and sometimes there is even applause for the president. One journalist even expressed her gratitude for the fact that such a strong governor has now been installed in her region.

In a survey, the sociologists at the Levada Center wanted to know in advance what questions Russians would like to ask the president. A third had none at all. Four percent wanted to wish him luck. And only one percent wanted to know when he would step down.