Edition cnn.gr writes about Putin’s direct threat to the West – the Russian president promises to respond “with lightning speed” to anyone who intervenes in the situation in Ukraine.
Speaking in St. Petersburg at a meeting with the Council of Legislators, he noted: it was decided in advance how to respond to such interference. “blocking“Poland and Bulgaria from Russian gas supplies – a tough response to the introduced EU sanctions and the supply of weapons, but it can be even tougher and “lightning fast” in case of intervention. Vladimir Putin said without going into details:
“If someone tries to interfere in the events taking place in Ukraine and raises strategic threats that are unacceptable to us, then he must know that the response will be lightning fast. We have all the tools [для реагирования]that no one can brag about. And we won’t brag about them, but we’ll use them when needed.”
By Putin’s words, the Russian military “averted a real danger that is already hanging over our homeland” – a “large-scale conflict” that would have already unfolded on Russian territory. Putin claims that Ukraine planned to return Crimea and Donbass by military means:
“The whole course of recent events, including the claims of the Kyiv regime to possess nuclear weapons, the deployment of a network of Western biological laboratories on Ukrainian territory, the uninterrupted supply of the most modern weapons to Ukraine, confirm that our reaction to these cynical plans was correct and timely.”
The Russian President repeated his “accusation” of the West in an effort to dismember Russia, noting that it was he who pushed Kyiv into conflict with Moscow. At the same time, Putin stated that the banking system, the Russian ruble, the transport sector and the economy as a whole “survived” against the backdrop of sanctions imposed by the West. However, he did not fail to declare that “all the goals of the military operation” in Ukraine would be achieved, and an answer would be given to efforts to isolate Russia.
As writes “Radio Liberty”, Putin called the strikes “retaliatory-oncoming”. This term is used in military doctrines in connection with the use of nuclear weapons. A retaliatory strike is such a strike that is delivered under conditions when an attack by the enemy is a confirmed fact, but has not yet caused significant damage to the defending side (that is, for example, after the enemy launched strategic missiles, but even before they hit goals).
The President of Russia did not say exactly which targets could be struck by lightning strikes and with what weapons. He did not speak directly about nuclear weapons, but he mentioned some weapons that Russia’s potential adversaries do not have.
The Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation expects GDP in 2022 to decline by 8.8% percent under the baseline scenario, or by 12.4% under the more conservative scenario, Reuters writes, citing the document received. And this, the newspaper notes, indicates that the pressure of sanctions, of course, has an impact.
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