Thanks to Karl Sanchez for providing the transcript and links to President Putin’s inspirational speech in defense of civilization.
ORIGINAL (RUS)
The whole thing really is a must-read (or watch) delivery.
The start:
We are meeting at a difficult time, when our Armed Forces are conducting a special military operation in Ukraine and Donbas. Let me remind you that at the very beginning of it, in the early morning of February 24, I publicly and openly named the reasons and the main goal of Russia’s actions. This is assistance to our people in the Donbas, who for almost eight years were subjected to real genocide by the most barbaric methods – blockade, large-scale punitive actions, terrorist attacks and constant artillery shelling. And for what? Only for the fact that they sought basic human rights – to live according to the laws and traditions of their ancestors, to speak their native language, to raise their children the way they want.
At the same time, the Kiev authorities not only ignored and sabotaged the implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures for the Peaceful Settlement of the Crisis throughout all these years, but at the end of last year they publicly refused to implement it altogether.
They have also begun to put into practice plans to join NATO. Moreover, there were also statements by the Kiev authorities about their intention to create their own nuclear weapons and their means of delivery. It was a real threat. Already in the foreseeable future, with foreign technical assistance, the pro-Nazi regime in Kiev could get its hands on weapons of mass destruction, and the target for it, of course, would be Russia.
In Ukraine, there was also a network of dozens of laboratories where military biological programs were conducted under the leadership and with the financial support of the Pentagon, including experiments with samples of coronavirus, anthrax, cholera, African swine fever and other deadly diseases. Traces of these secret programs are now being intensively tried to cover up. But we have every reason to believe that in the immediate vicinity of Russia, on the territory of Ukraine, in fact, biological weapons components were created.
Our repeated warnings that such a development poses a direct threat to Russia’s security have been rejected by Ukraine and its patrons in the United States and NATO, with ostentatious and cynical disdain.
Thus, all diplomatic options were completely exhausted. We were simply left with no options to peacefully solve problems that arise through no fault of our own. And in this regard, we were simply forced to launch a special military operation.
The appearance of Russian troops near Kiev and other cities of Ukraine is not connected with the intention to occupy this country. We do not have such a goal, and I also explicitly stated this in my address on February 24.
As for the tactics of combat operations, which were developed by the Ministry of Defense of Russia and our General Staff, they have fully justified themselves. And our guys – soldiers and officers – show courage and heroism, do everything that depends on them to avoid losses among the civilian population of Ukrainian cities.
I want to say this for the first time: at the very beginning of the operation in the Donbas, the Kiev authorities were asked through various channels, in order to avoid senseless bloodshed, not to enter into hostilities, but simply to withdraw their troops from the Donbass. They didn’t want to. Well, that’s their decision. Awareness of what is happening in the real world, on the ground, will inevitably come.
The operation is developing successfully, in strict accordance with pre-approved plans.
I would like to note that Ukraine, encouraged by the United States and a number of Western countries, purposefully prepared for a scenario of force, carnage and ethnic cleansing in Donbass. A massive offensive into the Donbas and then crimea was only a matter of time. And our Armed Forces foiled these plans.
Kiev was not only preparing for war, for aggression against Russia, against Donbass– they were fighting it. Attempts to organize sabotage and terrorist underground in Crimea did not stop. In recent years, hostilities have continued in the Donbas, shelling of peaceful settlements. During this time, almost 14,000 civilians were killed, among them children.
On March 14, as you know, a missile strike was launched on the center of Donetsk. It was an outright bloody terrorist attack that claimed the lives of more than 20 people. And such shelling has been going on in recent days. They beat indiscriminately, in squares, with fanaticism and frenzy of the doomed, like fascists who in the last days of the Third Reich tried to drag with them to the grave as many innocent victims as possible.
But what is striking in its exorbitant cynicism is not only Kiev’s shameless lies, statements that it was Russia (they thought of this!) that allegedly launched a missile at Donetsk, but also the fact that the so-called civilized Western world, the European and American press did not even notice the tragedy of Donetsk, as if nothing had happened.
Just as hypocritically, they have averted their eyes for the past eight years, when mothers in the Donbas buried their children. When old people were killed. It’s just some kind of moral, moral degradation, complete dehumanization.
The long-term mockery of the residents of Donbass could no longer be tolerated. And in order to put an end to the genocide, Russia recognized the people’s republics of Donbass, concluded treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with them. On the basis of these agreements, the republics appealed to our country for military assistance in repelling aggression. And we provided this assistance – we simply could not, we had no right to do otherwise.
But what I want to stress and ask you to pay attention to this is that if our troops had acted only on the territory of the people’s republics, helped them to liberate their land, this would not have become a final decision, would not have led to peace and would not have eliminated the threat to our country, already to Russia. On the contrary, a new front line would lie around Donbass and along its borders, shelling and provocations would continue. That is, the armed conflict would drag on indefinitely, be fueled by the revanchist hysteria of the Kiev regime, and NATO’s military infrastructure in Ukraine would unfold even faster and more aggressively: we would be confronted with the fact that the shock and offensive weapons of the Alliance are already at our borders.
Let me repeat that we had no other option for self-defense, for ensuring Russia’s security, except for conducting a special military operation. And all the tasks set, of course, will be solved. We will reliably ensure the security of Russia and our people and will never allow Ukraine to serve as a springboard for aggressive actions against our country.
It was the fundamental issues for Russia, for our future – the neutral status of Ukraine, demilitarization and denazification – that we were ready and are now ready to discuss during the talks. Our country has done everything to organize and conduct these negotiations, realizing that it is necessary to use every opportunity to save people and their lives.
But we are convinced again and again that the Kiev regime, to which its Western masters have set the task of creating an aggressive “anti-Russia”, does not care about the fate of the people of Ukraine itself. The fact that people are dying, the fact that hundreds of thousands, millions have become refugees, the fact that in the cities held by neo-Nazis and their armed criminals released from prisons, there is a real humanitarian catastrophe – everything does not matter.
It is also obvious to us that Western patrons are simply pushing the Kiev authorities to continue the bloodshed. They are being supplied with new shipments of weapons, intelligence, and other assistance, including the dispatch of military advisers and mercenaries.
As a weapon, they have chosen economic, financial, trade and other sanctions against Russia, which are now hitting the Europeans and Americans themselves, by the way, through the rising prices of gasoline, energy, food, through the loss of jobs associated with the Russian market. And there is no need here, as they say, to shift from a sick head to a healthy one, blaming our country for everything.
I want ordinary citizens of Western countries to hear me: they are now persistently trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some hostile actions of Russia, that from your own wallet you need to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat. It’s all a lie.
The truth is that the current problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of years of actions by the ruling elites of their states, their mistakes, short-sightedness and ambition. These elites are not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in countries. They are obsessed with their vested interests and super-profits.
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Read the entire thing. Then, compare those words to the pathetic lies, unjustifiable hatred, and hysteria from the fake WereWest. The rest is largely about Russia and the free nations moving on from the chains and death of globohomo, of the fake West where, “all the verbal tinsel about political correctness, the inviolability of private property, freedom of speech – all this flew away overnight,” Americans and other real Westerners would be wise to emulate the alternative strategy for the future.
PERRIN LOVETT 