A Defiant Putin Says Russia Will Flourish Without the West
By Troianovski, Kramer & Levenson, June 17, 2022, WSJ
Putin’s remarks to the economic forum were delayed by over an hour after the Kremlin cited “large-scale” distributed denial-of-service cyberattacks on the conference’s computer systems. The cyberattack came after IT Army of Ukraine, a “
hacktivist” group behind previous attacks on Russian websites, had flagged the event as a target.
Putin appeared onstage for more than three hours, in his most extended public appearance since he ordered the Ukraine invasion in February. But he did little to clarify his war aims, reprising his descriptions of Ukrainian territory as historically
belonging to Russia while avoiding the even more hostile rhetoric of other Russian officials.
“Only the people who live there will determine their future,” Putin said of the territory in eastern Ukraine that Russia is capturing, leaving open the question of whether he will seek to annex it. “And we will respect any choice they make.”
Ukrainian officials have heatedly dismissed the legitimacy of any putative referendums organized by the Kremlin and its proxies.
The CEOs of blue-chip Western companies used to flock to the St. Petersburg conference, but this year guests from Europe and the U.S. were few. Instead, it was a small delegation from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that made headlines in the Russian news
media, while the leaders of Egypt and China recorded video greetings that were played at the plenary session after Putin’s speech.
But even at the session, which appeared aimed at underlining Russia’s global connections despite its Western isolation, the limits of its friendships became apparent. Putin shared the stage with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, a former
Soviet republic that has been a close ally of Russia but has said it won't violate Western sanctions against Russia.
Asked about his attitudes toward what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, Tokayev chose his words carefully, refusing to offer any support. He said that as with the Russian-backed breakaway enclaves of Georgia, Kazakhstan
would not recognize the “quasi-state territories” that Russia is propping up in eastern Ukraine.
Putin, relaxed and frequently cracking a smile, did not give the appearance of a wartime president. Instead, he focused on the economy, alternating between the idea that Russia could easily replace Western imports and investment, and the claim that
Russians could temporarily do without such comforts.
When the session’s host, the Russian state television executive Margarita Simonyan, presented Putin with a Russian juice box that was white because of a shortage of imported ink, he said that such details should be the least of people’s worries.
“What’s the most important for us?” Putin asked. “To be independent, sovereign and assure our future development now for the following generations? Or to have packaging today?”
Putin spent most of the session pushing the idea that Russia could still flourish despite Western sanctions. He promised environmental and regulatory reforms — such as businesspeople being jailed less frequently by corrupt officials — as well as
government initiatives to support Russian companies.
“Russia is entering the approaching epoch as a powerful, sovereign country,” Putin said. “We will certainly use the new, colossal opportunities that this era is opening in front of us and will become even stronger.”
Turning to the European Union’s sanctions against Russia, Putin claimed the bloc had acted on orders from Washington despite the fallout for its own economy. “The European Union has completely lost its political sovereignty,” Putin said.
But he said Russia would have nothing against Ukraine joining the bloc. The E.U. is “not a military organization,” like NATO, he said, and it is “the sovereign decision of any country” whether to seek to join it.
“We were never against this — we were always against military expansion into Ukrainian territory because it threatens our security,” Putin said. “But as for economic integration, please, for God’s sake, it’s their choice.”
Russia, in fact, opposed a trade agreement with the European Union that Ukraine was negotiating in 2013. Ukraine then backed away from the pending deal under Russian pressure, a move that sparked the country’s pro-Western uprising the following year.
In a surprise move intended to show further solidarity with Ukraine, Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, on Friday paid his second visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, one day after the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Romania had met there.
Having recently survived a no-confidence vote among his own lawmakers, Johnson might have hoped that the visit would boost his popularity. He promised a new package of help with the potential to train up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days.
Britain, Johnson said at a news conference, would help the Ukrainian military “to do what I believe Ukrainians yearn to do, and that is to expel the aggressor from Ukraine.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/world/europe/putin-russia-economy-ukraine.html
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