In his year-end speech, broadcast on Friday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin returned to talk about Ukraine, a few hours after the phone call with US President Joe Biden, which focused on next month’s talks in which the two countries will discuss. Moscow’s request for security guarantees from the West and NATO on the eastern borders of Europe, a request that came as the Kremlin increased the presence of Russian troops near Ukraine.
Ukraine: US-Russia talks on January 10
Biden reiterated that the United States will impose new sanctions against Russia in the event of an escalation or invasion, a threat to which Putin has responded by warning Washington that this could lead to a complete severing of ties between the two nations.
“We have firmly and consistently defended our national interests, the security of the country and its citizens,” Putin said in his speech to the nation during which the president also spoke about the Covid emergency.
Biden-Putin phone call so the two leaders seek a thaw on Ukraine
by our correspondent Anna Lombardi
We have faced “colossal challenges but learned to live in those difficult conditions and solve difficult tasks thanks to our solidarity”, he said, continuing to “fight the dangerous pandemic that has swept over all continents and is not yet retreating”.
Between viruses and repression
Russia’s state coronavirus task force recorded a total of around 10.5 million confirmed infections and 308,860 deaths, but the state statistics agency using broader criteria in its counting system reported nearly 626,000 virus-related deaths in Russia since the beginning of the pandemic.
Only 51% of Russians have been fully vaccinated and the government has tried to speed up the spread of the vaccine.
“We are all united by the hope of positive changes in the future,” Putin said, adding that raising the standard of living is the main goal that “would help make Russia even stronger”.
Russia closes Memorial, the historic human rights NGO. Coup de grace to the opposition
by Rosalba Castelletti
In the past year, the Russian authorities have tightened controls and repression on opponents and dissidents, with Putin’s main political enemy, Alexei Navalny, sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and his organizations outlawed because they are “extremist”. like dozens of media, civil society groups and activists accused of being “foreign agents”.
Earlier this week, a Russian court decided to close the country’s oldest and most important human rights organization, Memorial.
Putin, 69, has been in power for more than two decades – longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
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