Due to Covid-19 restrictions, media outlets were not able to apply for accreditation to the event for the first time since it was first held in 2001. Instead, the Kremlin hand-picked around 500 international and domestic journalists to participate. A number of critical independent outlets, including Novaya Gazeta — whose chief editor shared the Nobel Peace Prize this year — said they received no invite.
In addition to the Ukraine crisis currently dominating Russian foreign policy, journalists are likely to ask Putin about Russia’s crackdown on civil society in 2021, including the designating of dozens of organizations and individuals as “foreign agents” and the upcoming trial to disband Russia’s oldest human rights organization Memorial.
After a year that saw ordinary Russians’ wallets hit hard by rising food prices and surging inflation, Russia’s president will want to show his voters that it is an issue his government is taking seriously.
And as Russia’s 2024 presidential election grows nearer, Putin could give a hint about whether he plans to run for a fifth term.
The end-of-year press conferences have been held every year since 2001 and can last up to four and a half hours — the length of last year’s event.
Follow the latest updates in our live blog:
2:23 Asked how he could give an order to attack Ukraine, Putin referred emotionally to the plight of Donbass’ inhabitants, telling the journalist to instead ask the Ukrainian authorities: “How can they shell their own citizens?”
He stressed that Donbass’ residents alone should determine the region’s future, adding that Russia was ready to act as a mediator to “create a better future for the people living there.”
Putin blamed Kiev for the surging tensions, saying that Ukraine “refuses to talk to representatives of the Donbass.”
He also personally blamed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying that he had risen to power on promises to end the war and implement the Minsk Accords, but had “come under the influence of radical elements.”
2:20 A journalist from the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station asked a question on behalf of Nobel Prize winner and Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov about whether Russia was working to uncover the people who ordered the high-profile assassinations of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovkskaya in 2006 and leading opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in 2015. Muratov’s independent Novaya Gazeta outlet was not invited to the press conference.
“There is an opinion that the people who ordered the assasination are hidden, but the investigating officials are not aware of this. We don’t know of any other people than those who are in jail,” Putin said.
1:50 Asked about the ongoing process of integration between Belarus and Russia, Putin said there had been progress in talks with embattled Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, but added that it is still a work in progress. “We are building a ‘Union State,’ but our integration is at a much lower level than that of the European Union. It’s incomparable.”
1:45 Putin says Gazprom is not to blame for record gas prices in Europe and calls on Europe to sign long-term agreements with the Russian state-controlled gas company if it wants to ensure stable supplies at fixed prices. “With long-term contracts, prices are three, four, or even seven times cheaper,” Putin says. Europe has in recent years moved towards shorter-term agreements which give more flexibility, but require buying more gas at market prices. “I see these accusations that Gazprom has not booked extra capacity on the Yamal-Europe route. This is because buyers have not made any purchase orders.”
1:38 Answering a question about current tensions with the West, Putin says his country’s actions will not depend on talks with the U.S. on his proposed security guarantees, but on the “unconditional provision of Russia’s security.”
He stressed that NATO’s expansion to the east was “unacceptable.”
“The U.S. is placing rockets at our doorstep… How would the U.S. react if we delivered rockets near their borders with Canada or Mexico?”
Putin continued to slam the U.S., which he says “brazenly lied to us” about NATO’s “five waves of expansion.”
“Did we approach their borders? No. They approached ours,” he said, adding that it feels like the West and Russia live “in different worlds.”
1:18 Asked about the situation with Ukraine and whether a war was realistic, Putin replied that Russia was responding to threats from Kiev. He called the 2014 Maidan Revolution a “bloody coup d’etat” and accused Ukrainian “extremists” of planning operations to retake Crimea and the Donbass.
“We must think about the prospects of our own security. We have to keep an eye on what is happening in Ukraine, and on when they might attack,” he says.
Putin also defended Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support of rebels in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, saying that inhabitants of both regions had always thought of themselves as Russians.
However, Putin also said that ongoing negotiations with the U.S. were “positive.” and hinted at fresh direct talks in the new year. “The ball is in their court.”
1:14 When asked about Russia’s widespread labeling of independent media and NGOs as “foreign agents” this year, Putin says that “foreign agents” legislation was first invented not in Russia, but in the West in the 1930s. He claims only 0.034% of organizations are recognized as “undesirable,” both abroad and in Russia. Putin stresses that foreign agent laws in the West are more strict than in Russia, where the laws are “liberal.”
1:10 Putin is asked about the 2020 poisoning of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
“Russia can’t be conquered, only destroyed from the inside… Who’s done that [in the past]? Those who served foreign interests not connected to the interests of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation today,” Putin said. “We’ve repeatedly sent requests for other countries to give us at least some materials confirming the poisoning. There isn’t any. Give us a reason to open a criminal case. But if there’s nothing to answer, let’s turn this page.”
“As for prisoners: don’t commit criminal offenses and use political activity as an excuse.”
12:58 Putin is asked by the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda about Russia’s low vaccination rate and high excess death toll — the third highest per capita of any country in the world. Putin restated his opposition to mandatory vaccination and said that the problem is “absolutely not one of political will.”
He says that the importance of vaccination must be “respectfully” explained to the population, and criticized vaccine opponents for being “dishonest.”
12:40 Putin is asked another question about the impact of inflation — currently at a six-year high of 8.4% — on the Russian economy. He says Russian business figures complain to him every day about Russia’s high interest rates, but defended the Central Bank’s series of aggressive rate hikes.
“You can ‘scold’ the Central Bank for raising rates — as representatives of the real economy do, not on camera, but at meetings with me — but if you do not do this, it will be like in Turkey,” Putin said, referring to the Turkish lira’s extreme volatility in recent weeks after its Central Bank cut interest rates despite high inflation.
12:29: An Interfax reporter asks the first question, focusing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Russia’s economy. Putin says the country recovered better from the pandemic compared to many developed countries and says he expects real incomes to rise by 3.5%. Lists growing inflation and the country’s demographic situation as the major challenges Russia faces.
12:13 The press conference has begun.
11:19 All journalists must pass through a so-called “disinfection tunnel” upon arriving at the Manezh Exhibition Hall in central Moscow. They have also been required to test negative for Covid-19 three times and to wear face masks.
Source:themoscowtimes.com/2021/12/23