Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke out about the war in Ukraine at the virtual G20 summit. But he leaves out crucial points.
Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in an exchange with several Western heads of state and government for the first time in a long time. On Thursday he joined a virtual G20 summit. He denied any blame for the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Some participants in the group of leading economic powers (G20) expressed shock in their speeches about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, Putin said on Wednesday, according to the Kremlin. “Yes, of course, acts of war are always a tragedy.” We need to think about how to end this tragedy, he said.
The Kremlin repeatedly portrays Ukraine as a country allegedly run by “neo-Nazis” and presents the change of power that followed pro-European protests in Kiev in 2014 as the supposed trigger for the war. In fact, Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022 .
Putin is hiding the details
Regarding possible negotiations, Putin claimed: “Russia has never rejected peace talks with Ukraine.” He accused Kiev of Ukraine refusing to negotiate. In fact, Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, and has so far imposed strict conditions on the Ukrainian government so that negotiations could even be held.
If the Kremlin had its way, Ukraine would have to lay down its arms, give up its ambitions to join NATO, accept Russian as the state language and recognize Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in violation of international law, as Russian. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj has so far rejected peace talks. For Kiev, a withdrawal of Russian troops is also a condition for lasting peace. Moscow rejects this.
Scholz: “He had to listen”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said the G20 summit was a good opportunity to make it clear that peace could easily be restored in Ukraine if Russia withdraws troops. “And we did that and so did others. And in that sense it was interesting because he had to listen.”
During his G20 appearance, Putin then turned his attention to the war between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza. According to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the members of the G20 welcomed the humanitarian pause planned from this Thursday and the associated planned release of some hostages. Here you can read more about it.
Putin, on the other hand, asked whether his colleagues were not shocked by the murder of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. Terrorists from the Islamist Hamas carried out massacres in Israel on October 7th. Israel’s military then carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip and deployed ground troops into the sealed-off coastal area.
Since then, Putin has repeatedly taken sides with the Palestinians – just like his close ally, the Islamic regime in Iran. This not only finances the terrorist organization Hamas, but also equips Russia with drones for its war against Ukraine. Already at the beginning of the war in the Middle East, experts warned that the Kremlin would use the situation in the Middle East to distract from its war against Ukraine.
Putin is also focusing on vacancies in the economy
Putin finally blamed the leading Western powers for inflation and other problems in the global economy. Trillions of US dollars and euros have flowed into the economy, partly to combat the corona epidemic, said Putin. However, this leads to global inflation and increased prices for food and energy, from which poor countries in particular suffer.
Here too, Putin failed to mention that the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is one of the reasons for global inflation. As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia was subject to sanctions by numerous countries and the EU. Russia responded by, for example, reducing gas deliveries through the North Sea pipeline, which made gas more expensive in Europe. The sanctions against Russia as a result of its war also caused prices to rise in Germany, for example.
