Berlin The shouts of “Rossiya, Rossiya” (Russia, Russia), which Vladimir Putin then joined in personally, echoed through the Kremlin for less than a minute. The Russian President had previously held an almost hour-long speech in which four more areas of Ukraine were declared Russian territory.
The four representatives appointed by Russia from the occupied parts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Cherson then signed their application for membership in the Russian Federation. And the Kremlin boss announced: “There are four new Russian regions.”
After the national anthem was played, the four Moscow-led separatist leaders placed their hands on Putin’s and shouts of “Rossiya” rang out from the hall.
The ceremony in the Kremlin ended unexpectedly quickly. During the live broadcast on Russian state television, no beaming or friendly smiling faces could be seen in the rows of the invited guests when the cameras panned. The state act was more depressed than exuberant.
In the evening, a big party is to be held on Red Square to celebrate the annexation of the four regions of Ukraine. In his speech, Putin called on Ukraine to cease hostilities and to recognize unification in negotiations.
Forced voting
In the past few days, Russia had held mock referendums in the four regions. Those residents who had not already fled to other parts of the country had to vote, sometimes at gunpoint, on their alleged desire to join the Russian Federation.
Russia annexes occupied eastern Ukrainian territories
Soldiers went from house to house with ballot boxes to persuade unwilling residents to vote. Some of the ballot papers had already been marked pro-Russia, as shown by videos from villages in the occupied territories that had been circulated on the Internet. The result: Up to 99 percent of the participants are said to have voted for union with Russia.
That would mean that even the young men in the occupied areas who, after the official annexation, now have to do military service for Russia at the front, would have to have agreed.
Soldiers probably went from house to house with ballot boxes to force unwilling residents to vote.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
In addition, the Russian army has not even conquered all of the areas that the Kremlin wants to have included in the Russian Federation on Friday: Parts of Zaporizhia and Cherson are not occupied, while other parts are being recaptured by the Ukrainian army.
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In the Zaporizhia region, the Russian army fired on a convoy of civilians fleeing on “recording day” this Friday, killing at least 25 people and injuring more than 50 people fleeing, according to images from the Reuters news agency.
Contradiction between perception and reality
In his speech, Putin demonstrated that his perception is increasingly at odds with reality: the USA is partly responsible for the Second World War, because it made America the world’s largest economic power and made the dollar the world’s reserve currency.
The West treated Russia like a colony and pulled trillions of dollars out of the country. He forgot to mention that it is Russian officials, politicians and oligarchs who have taken their fortunes abroad in the form of capital flight, opening accounts in South Sea tax havens and buying villas on the Riviera.
He made fun of the EU countries for having to freeze in winter due to a lack of energy. Russia is not to blame, the Nord Stream pipeline tubes through the Baltic Sea finally blew up “the Anglo-Saxons”.
The ceremony in the Kremlin, which was exaggerated to the enormous importance for Russia, came to an end unexpectedly quickly.
(Photo: Reuters)
Putin said the attack was carried out by those who benefited from it. He failed to mention that cutting off the Baltic Sea pipelines for good fits into his strategy of dividing Europe with drastic energy shortages. “Who needs it did it,” Putin said of the attacks on the pipelines.
No recognition of the annexation
So far, no one except Moscow has recognized the illegal inclusion of the four territories in the east and south of Ukraine in the Russian Federation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had condemned the annexation as a “dangerous escalation”. He stressed that it had “no legal value”. Massive criticism of the procedure also came from the EU, and the USA has already reacted with new sanctions.
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Advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the annexation ceremony in Moscow a “Kremlin freak show”. This is what Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter. Zelensky himself announced that he had not even watched Putin’s speech. However, he again urged his country to join NATO sooner.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was sentenced to years in prison at Putin’s behest, published an article in the Washington Post on the day of Putin’s annexation ceremony. In it he accuses the President: “For the current Russian authorities, war is not a catastrophe, but a philosophy. It is a means to solve all problems.”
Replacing Putin “with another member of his elite will not change attitudes towards the war. But obsession and bloodthirstiness for Ukraine is not so widespread outside of the power elite.” That is why “Russia needs a parliamentary republic” and not a Putinian presidential dictatorship.
More: Fourth leak discovered in Nord Stream tubes – German Navy dispatches minehunter.