After his June 16 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Joe Biden said it may take six months before the world knows whether the Geneva meeting was successful in curbing Putin’s menacing behavior around the globe — which ranges from the military occupation of several countries, sanctioned murder of opponents, interference in democratic elections abroad and countenance of war crimes.
But judging from Putin’s comments on June 30 at his annual call-in show, the Russian dictator’s attitude towards Ukraine remains the same — imperial, ill-informed, condescending, and hypocritical. His beliefs cast strong doubt about whether he will ever end Russia’s war against Ukraine, now in its eighth year, at a cost of 14,000 lives and 7 percent of Ukrainian territory — Crimea and the eastern Donbas — that are now firmly under Kremlin control in violation of international law.
Despite the Russian government’s military occupation of Ukraine, as well as its incessant and heavy-handed interference in Ukraine’s domestic affairs, Putin had the audacity to accuse Ukraine of being under “full external management” by the United States, Germany, and France.
“Why meet with (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky if he has accepted the full external management of his country? The main issues concerning Ukraine’s functioning are not decided in Kyiv but in Washington and, partly, in Berlin and Paris. What is there to talk about then?” Putin asked. “Nevertheless, I do not refuse to hold such meetings, but I first want to understand what issues we can discuss.”
Putin went on to repeat his oft-stated refrain that Ukrainians and Russians are one people and, by implication, one country. The Russian leader has never accepted Ukraine’s status as an independent nation and has long lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union, during which he rose through the ranks of the KGB before becoming the hand-picked successor to Boris Yeltsin in 2000.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comment on the country being a U.S. pawn by tweeting, “This is our country and it’s only up to us to decide our fate.”
To another questioner, he replied: “So, I do not regard the Ukraine people unfriendly. Nothing of the kind. Russians and Ukrainians are a single people. But the Ukrainian leadership, the current authorities of modern Ukraine are clearly unfriendly to us. This is perfectly obvious. Otherwise, there is no explanation for the draft law submitted by the Ukrainian president to the Verkhovna Rada, the law on indigenous peoples under which Russians are not an indigenous people in that territory. It defies comprehension. Russians have lived there for centuries, and now they have been declared as non-indigenous people. What can this lead to? As a result, part of these people could emigrate. But where would they go? They have flats, jobs, and so on in Ukraine. And so they will have to reregister [as Ukrainians], because they would be second-class citizens otherwise. This would reduce the overall number of Russians. This effect will be comparable to the negative impact of weapons of mass destruction. This is serious. This is pushing the Russian language out of everyday life.”
Putin also blamed Ukrainian leaders for “the suppression of the opposition in Ukraine,” a remarkable assertion considering the Kremlin dictator has never faced a free and fair election, had his critics jailed or killed, and silenced dissenting or oppositional political forces.
He particularly sounded aggrieved about the sanctions against his friend, Viktor Medvedchuk, and the government’s ban on the oligarch’s three pro-Kremlin TV stations and imposition of sanctions against Medvedchuk’s business interests. Medvedchuk is under house arrest while facing treason charges.
“Viktor Medvedchuk, whom I regard as a Ukrainian nationalist, was seized and confined to his apartment ahead of the election campaign, and they also ordered him to wear an electronic bracelet. Absolutely illegal and unconstitutional decisions have been taken. But nobody is paying any attention to this. This shows people in the country that there are no legal opportunities for the forces which want to develop and strengthen their country, including by developing normal relations with Russia, that they have no chance. They are nipped in the bud: some are jailed, others are placed under house arrest, and still others are simply killed in the street.”
The full English-language transcript of Putin’s answers to the call-in show is here.
