Pavel Zarubin: It so happened that we meet right after the United Russia party Congress and, of course, I have many questions, but, if I may, I would like to clarify something straightaway: It turns out this is the second time in just over a month that you attend the United Russia Congress. A logical question is: Why and what for?
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: First, soon we will hold the elections. This is the first point. And second – after all, I was the person who founded this party back in the day so it would only be natural if I support it.
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Incidentally, I want to thank all the parliamentary parties, all the parties represented in the parliament, for their statesmanlike, patriotic stance, and for the support they provide to the people of Russia, the Fatherland and myself as the head of state, in addressing the crucial problems facing the country, our state.
As for today’s subject, we spoke about the programme, and I paid much attention to the programme of the United Russia party. This is a very important and serious document, this is the party’s guidelines for the coming years regarding the country’s development and solving the tasks of the country’s development.
Well, you know, I want to be honest, it looks like ordinary people have hardly read the programme to the end, and even people professionally engaged in politics, probably, didn’t get through every single word in it. Although, I say it again, it is a very important, conceptual and fundamental document.
But there is something else that is important to me. It is important that the United Russia has never engaged in populism. This is always important, but nowadays it is particularly important. Clearly, during the election campaign any political force wishing to win the voters’ attention and preferences declares some goals which look very attractive to citizens and says that the goals would be undoubtedly attained. Yet frequently or, to put it mildly, sometimes it is done without any professional analysis, without understanding the sources of financing for attaining such goals, without professional assessment, a profound professional assessment of possible related repercussions, and so forth.
Of course, I reiterate, all political forces are tempted to do this. Meanwhile, the United Russia still tries to avoid such temptations and tries to act, and it acts very carefully, professionally and responsibly. This is the main thing, I believe.
Pavel Zarubin: I have a few more extremely important questions.
A particular public response in Ukraine, in Western countries, and, of course, here as well, is sparked by the fact that Russia has sharply increased both the power and the number of strikes against Kiev and other Ukrainian cities and ports.
According to the information available to you, what are the outcomes of these strikes? How effective are they, if at all? And do they have any overall impact on the situation along the line of engagement?
Vladimir Putin: Of course, they are effective; these strikes are timely, and, obviously, this helps our soldiers, our heroes at the front to accomplish the combat missions they face. Why? Because it hinders the possibility of delivering equipment and ammunition, and rotating personnel on the line of engagement. This disrupts the ability of defence industry enterprises to improve weapons, and this improvement is happening with the direct participation, not just with the support, but with direct participation of Western sponsors, and, of course, this has the most direct and positive effect on the conduct of warfare in terms of achieving military results.
Pavel Zarubin: Why did this escalation occur altogether?
Vladimir Putin: If we talk about the current developments, it is, of course, the result of yet another adventure by the Kiev regime and its Western handlers who have planned to inflict yet another “strategic defeat” on Russia – this time, as is known, within 40 days and through massive missile and UAV strikes against our civilian facilities and logistics.
A goal was publicly stated to destroy entire sectors of our country’s economy, undermine the unity of our people, and weaken the cohesion of Russian society. The overall goal is to bring Russia to collapse, something they have long dreamed of and constantly talk about. As is known, this 40‑day period expired on August 5. And thus, the question arises: What is the outcome? Strikes against civilian, essentially unprotected facilities, and, most importantly, against civilians, evidently cause economic damage to our country and lead to losses. And loss of every person — I want to underscore this — is always a tragedy: for the family, for loved ones, and for the entire country. We know well that the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War and World War II, and neo‑Nazis today, felt and, apparently, still feel a special satisfaction, a pleasure as they commit such crimes, and we see these crimes continue.
Yet the final result turned out to be exactly the opposite of what the enemy had expected.
Apparently, there could have been no point of inflexion in the confrontation with Russia, and it did not happen. The Kiev regime and its patrons cannot gain any advantage, have not gained it, and will never do.
Moreover, in response to this obvious escalation – and it is an obvious escalation, based not on an objective analysis of the situation on the battlefield or the state of the Ukrainian economy, society, and the state, which are corroded by corruption, but on PR and ambitions – in response to this reckless venture, we have stepped up the strikes. You just mentioned this – we have stepped up the strikes on Ukraine’s defence industry enterprises, including those in Kiev, and have begun to respond to the enemy’s actions against our civilian industrial and logistics facilities.
The Kiev regime has set itself the objective of damaging our economy. What has it done? It opened this Pandora’s box itself. Well, be ready to get a blowback on your most sensitive sectors of the economy, which, to be honest, are already on their last legs. This, by the way, also applies to agricultural production, and the Kiev regime gets its main revenues from the export of its products.
Let us go further. “Do you want to disrupt our logistics?” – we can address this question to the enemy. Well, retaliatory actions won’t be long in coming. Here you are. At the same time, the Russian army’s actions are definitely much more painful and much more destructive. I have repeatedly said: there will always be a retaliation.
And most importantly, the enemy’s actions have not had any impact on the situation on the front line. Moreover, our troops are not only continuing the offensive in all directions but have also increased the pace of their advance. The Russian Armed Forces are confidently carrying out tasks to fully achieve the goals of the special military operation.
Of course, we must and will improve the air defence system and enhance its capabilities. We need to streamline coordination between defence, law enforcement and civilian agencies at all levels, and to leverage the capabilities of state‑run enterprises and private businesses. This is particularly essential ahead of the elections to the State Duma and other government bodies. The enemy is trying to intimidate us and undermine the elections. We will not allow them to do it. I firmly believe that this attempt of information and psychological influence on Russian society is doomed to fail.
We will definitely go on strengthening Russia’s statehood and the legitimacy of power. Meanwhile, Russia’s response to another provocation by the Kiev regime is, by all appearance, fairy painful for them, causing serious repercussions and bringing some primary areas to a crisis. This is why the Kiev authorities are trying now via some intermediaries, whose opinion we certainly respect, to get out of the current situation, which, I want to stress, they provoked themselves. The Kiev regime is trying to prevent a catastrophic development of such situation, while this trend is apparent, judging by everything.
That said, the proposals conveyed to us are sometimes, I would say, exotic and unacceptable. We are always ready for a dialogue on peace but only based on the realities unfolding on the ground.
Pavel Zarubin: I just cannot but specify, what are those exotic proposals?
Vladimir Putin: You know, I do not want to speak about it now and go into details, because it is a kind of probing a variety of areas of possible agreements. They were voiced one way or another previously, but in the current situation they are presented in a special way. Anyway, it is so far untimely to pre-empt and talk about what might form the basis of possible agreements.
Pavel Zarubin: Russian strikes on Ukrainian ports made Kiev officials, including at the UN, make rather hysterical statements to the effect that the world may allegedly come to the brink of famine because grain supplies have been paralysed and, of course, we are to be blamed for this.
Vladimir Putin: I have already said that Kiev authorities have let the genie out of the bottle themselves – they have begun shelling our civilian enterprises and overtly declared their goal to destroy the Russian economy. So what? I have just said: get a retaliation.
Regarding agriculture, it has been mentioned, too. Export of these goods is one of Ukraine’s biggest export revenue sources.
Regarding the global problems, hardly anything will change. First, because we have large export possibilities. Just yesterday the Minister of Agriculture reported to me – at least 60 million tonnes. This is a very good stock. Yes, we have some problems with exporting our goods, too, but we will resolve them, and it means that the world market will feel no shortages at all.