Putin’s disturbing speech who also wants to purify Russia – Pierre Haski

Today there is not only one country in the process of destruction, but two. The first, Ukraine, is the victim of the attack by the Russian army, with cities turning into battlefields. But Russia is also undergoing a form of destruction, or at least of mental, economic and political regression.

The man who finds himself at the center of both dramas, so different from each other, is Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who has taken on the responsibility of starting this war. On March 16, Putin gave a speech indicating a new enemy, this time internal. The terms used are particularly disturbing.

The head of the Kremlin spoke by videoconference with all the governors of Russia, choosing words from a different era, that of Stalinism and the Cold War, an era that we thought was over. Putin attacked the “fifth column”, or rather the internal enemy, the “traitors of the nation” ready to “sell the homeland”. These people, according to Putin, are linked to the West and think that this is “the sign of belonging to a higher class”.

Putin wants to compact the population behind what he modestly called a “special military operation” (the word “war” is prohibited). For this reason, the president accuses all those who oppose his initiative of treason, denying any room for dispute.

There is a particularly disturbing phrase in Putin’s speech: “Any people, especially the Russian people, are capable of distinguishing true patriots from scum and traitors, and spit the latter out as if they were flies that have landed in their mouths. I am convinced that this natural and necessary purification of society will only strengthen our country ”.

The word “purification” is the scariest, because it portends the worst for anyone who dares to oppose the operation in Ukraine. The Russian population has heard a single speech since last February 24th. The independent media were neutralized one after the other. Hundreds of Russian journalists have fled the country. Access to foreign platforms is blocked. Opposing the war, which cannot even be named, has become very risky. On the other hand, in Russia any form of opposition is.

In his speech Putin declared that through Ukraine Russia is clashing with the West, an ideal target and scapegoat for everything from sanctions to the flow of refugees. Putin even asked himself “who will be responsible for the millions of starvation deaths in poor countries due to food shortages?”. Of course, his answer is “the West”, certainly not who started the war.

This speech joins the others delivered by the Russian president since the beginning of the crisis, with which Putin denied the existence of Ukraine and appealed to a Russian identity withdrawn into itself. In this way he managed to bring about a totalitarian transformation of his regime. Regardless of the outcome of the war, Russia will take years, if not decades, to recover from the damage of “Putinism”.

(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)