Russian leader to conduct end of year press conference as EU leaders meet to discuss aid for Ukraine
Vladimir Putin is about to begin a marathon press conference that he will use to boast about his army’s success in the Ukraine war and set the tone for his presidential campaign in next year’s elections where his victory is a foregone conclusion.
Putin has held similar media events, where journalists or carefully-selected Russians are chosen to ask him questions on national television, for most of his 24 years in power. But the Kremlin cancelled last year’s event after a series of embarrassing military defeats in Ukraine. The resumption of the call-in show — this year with both members of the public and journalists in a single formal — year indicates the Kremlin is hoping to show that its Ukraine strategy is back on track and that Putin is firmly in control.
In terms of the war, Putin is likely to emphasise the modest gains made by Kyiv during its summer counteroffensive and the difficulties securing a new round of military aid from the United States due to infighting between the Biden administration and the Republican party. The possible reelection of Donald Trump, who has spoken fondly of Putin and is skeptical of US support for Ukraine, will also give Putin a chance to claim that Russia will be able to outlast Ukraine.
In public comments several days ago, Putin said:
They’re running out of [everything], they don’t have their own base…when there is no own base, no ideology of its own, no industry, no money of its own, nothing of its own, then there is no future. And we have [our own].
The event comes just days after Putin announced his reelection campaign to a potential fifth term as president. Many of his rivals, such as Alexei Navalny, are in prison or have fled the country and he is the presumptive victor in an election that is considered neither free, nor fair. Yet the Kremlin is still keen to claim that Putin is broadly popular and uses the event to bolster his bonafides as a problem solver who is in touch with the nation and its people.
Putin is likely to emphasise the resilience of Russia’s economy despite foreign sanctions. He may also seek to turn away from the war slightly and speak more about Russia’s investments in social policy, although many Russians still say they feel that the economy is in decline.
And often, a Russian from a far-flung town will ask for something far below the remit of the president — a renovation of the local playground for instance — and by the end of the show the Kremlin will announce that the work is underway.
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said on Thursday that the EU has to reach an agreement on Ukraine’s EU accession, adding that Hungary’s prime minister, Victor Orbán, told her he does not see an agreement on Ukraine’s EU accession.
“I just had a talk with Viktor Orbán. He said he does not see an agreement right now,” Kallas told reporters upon her arrival to an EU summit in Brussels.
She said Ukraine has fulfilled the criteria to open accession talks which would take several years.
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine and elsewhere:Kyiv says Russia attacked south Ukraine with 42 drones overnight
Ukraine said on Thursday that its air defence systems had downed dozens of Iranian-designed drones launched by Russian forces targeting the southern city of Odesa, in Moscow’s latest overnight barrage that wounded 11 people.
“In total, launches of 42 enemy attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were recorded,” the Ukrainian air force said, adding that it had destroyed 41 of the Shahed drones deployed from Russian-controlled territory, including the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
