The underlying message of a talkative Putin: I’m still in charge

Continuing to answer questions at a news conference Friday afternoon after his spokesman tried to call it quits, the Russian president, Vladimir Putinhe made a convincing argument about the nature of truth.

“No one can be trusted,” he told a reporter for Russia’s state media.

“You can only trust me.”

It was the fitting culmination of a week in which Putin was mostly dedicated to building his own version of reality at a time when a Russian victory in Ukraine seems as far off as ever.

In a marathon of public appearances that kicked off Monday with a televised trip across the damaged Russian bridge in Crimea, Putin elaborated on nuclear doctrine, prisoner swaps with the US, alleged Polish revanchism and even “very harsh” practices from European zoos .

On Wednesday, the Kremlin released nearly three hours of footage of Putin’s meeting with his “council of human rights“.

On Thursday, he released a video in which Putin vowed to continue his attacks on Ukraine as he looked so jovial, flutes of champagne in hand, that some observers thought he was drunk.

And in a press conference on Friday, on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kyrgyzstan, the president rejected the notion that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could have headwinds.

“The special military operation is underway, everything is stable for us there,” Putin said, using the Kremlin’s term for his war in Ukraine.

“There are no issues or problems there today.”

Most of what Putin said repeated his previous positions, and much of what he said it was fake.

On Ukraine, he said “in the end, we will have to come to an agreement” to stop the war, although he did not indicate his willingness to respect Ukrainian sovereignty.

And referring to the release of the American basketball star on Thursday Britney Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, Putin said Russia “wouldn’t say no to doing more of this work in the future.”

However, even her string of appearances was a message in itself:

that of a president who, despite an economy collapsing from sanctions and Russia’s enormous military losses, tries to show off healthy, alert and still in command.

The burst of activity marked a change from November, when only an extended public event was held from November 10 to 20, an absence from the spotlight that has not been explained by the Kremlin.

“He is simply showing, especially to Russian ruling circles, that he is standing still check the situation‘said Grigorii Golosov, professor of political science at St. Petersburg European University.

“When Putin talks so much, what he says is not so important.”

Indeed, some of Putin’s comments this week have mainly served to reveal his fixation with his own government’s propaganda.

In his Wednesday video conference call with a select human rights panel, he responded to a question about the treatment of Russians in Europe by saying that “nationalist elements in Poland” were “dreaming” of taking over parts of western Ukraine, repeating an unfounded claim that one of its top intelligence officials had realized the previous week.

Then he went on a tangent about zoos: “In some Western countries, zoo animals are killed in front of children, slaughtered, etc. This does not correspond to our culture at all, the culture of the peoples of the Russian Federation.”

It was a reference, reported by pro-Kremlin media, to Copenhagen Zoo’s decision in 2014 to kill a giraffe over the risk of inbreeding.

And it was an example of how Putin is trying to use any possible argument to support the anti-Western sentiment among the Russian public.

But in Putin’s autocracy, it is his own words that offer the best guide to Russian policy.

In this sense, this week he showed no doubts, repeating the comparison he made in June of his own conquests with those of Peter the greatthe pivotal tsar of the 18th century.

“The fact that there are new territories is a significant achievement for Russia, it’s serious,” Putin said Wednesday in his video conference call with his human rights council, flashing a smirk despite growing scrutiny. dimmer who wields his army over those regions.

“Peter the Great was already fighting for access to the sea ​​of ​​azovPutin added, referring to the southeast Ukrainian coast now controlled by Russian troops.

The next day, Putin awarded Russia’s Golden Star to military officers in the Kremlin.

In addition to releasing footage of his speech, Putin’s office released a four-minute video showing the president engaged in a small military conversation with the honorees, each holding a glass of champagne.

“The attack aircraft are fighting great, as are the sushkis,” Putin said, referring to the Sukhoi military warplanes with a diminutive name.

“Fantastic, simply excellent.”

He then justified the Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a rhetorical question:

“But who started it?”, arguing that Ukraine was to blame for attacking the Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea, which Russia uses to supply its front-line troops.

On social media, some expressed surprise that the Kremlin released the images, as Putin – whose sobriety and self-possession are essential to his well-groomed image in Russia – appeared to be tipsy as he swayed from side to side.

But Golosov said the broadcast of Putin looking happy and relaxed as he talked about his country’s deadly war was effective for the Kremlin’s press advisers.

“Putin needs to show the public that everything is going well,” Golosov said, “that he is capable of talking funny about what is happening.”

However, Putin also has a global audience in mind.

On Friday, he elaborated on what he said could be a change in Russian nuclear doctrine, warning that Russia could alter its philosophy to allow for a preemptive strike.

US policy, he said, may require a more aggressive stance, even if he has left his options open, as he often does.

“We’re just thinking about it,” Putin said.

c.2022 The New York Times Society