Putin speaks: the Russian president’s most important annual event

The final question to Putin was what he would have warned or advised himself in the year 2000, if he had the chance to go back in time. The president said he would have warned himself against “excessive naivety and credulity in relations with our so-called partners,” apparently referring to the West. Concerning the advice he would have given himself, Putin said: “One must believe in the great Russian people. This faith is the key to the success of Russia’s revival and development.”

Putin revealed that he had visited the capital of Russia’s new Lugansk Region, but did it in a “stealthy” manner. “I’ve driven around Lugansk and looked around,” he said. The city is “modest, but clean and tidy,” which says a lot about the people who live there, the president stressed, adding that he was planning to go there again in the future.

Putin also shared his opinion on the development of artificial intelligence, saying that “it can’t be stopped. Therefore, we must take charge of it.”

“Nobody knows how its going to turn out. We can talk about restrictions and self-limitations, reach agreements between the leaders of various countries so that it won’t endanger humanity,” he said. However, the Russian leader insisted that AI “won’t be able to replace humans.”

Putin has been asked a question by a computer-generated lookalike, apparently made with the use of deep-fake technology. The person behind the stunt identified himself as a student at St. Petersburg State University, who wanted to know if claims that the Russian leader uses body doubles are true. Putin appreciated the joke, but insisted that what he saw on screen was “his first double.”

Argentina risks social instability if the country’s newly-elected President Javier Milei fulfills his plans of ditching the peso for the US dollar, Putin noted.

“If there is no national currency, you can’t print anything, there is only one way – reducing budget spending for the social sphere, a severe cutting of wages, pensions, expenses on medicine, on roads and domestic security,” he explained. The president added that the idea of adopting the dollar would also lead to a “significant loss of the country’s sovereignty.”

Relations between Moscow and Beijing have recently reached an “unprecedented level,” Putin said, adding that such cooperation is “one of the essential guarantors of stability in the world.” According to the president, the two countries’ bilateral trade will grow by 30% this year to between $220 billion and $230 billion.

Unlike the West, which is trying to expand NATO’s activities to Asia despite this going beyond the alliance’s stated goals, Russia and China’s “friendship is not being directed against someone else, but serves the benefit of the two countries.”

© Sputnik / Stanislav Krasilnikov

Discussing the “rules-based order” promoted by the US and its allies, Putin claimed that “those rules are non-existent because they change on a daily basis... depending on the interests of some of the stakeholders.” 

There are, however, many countries that do not want to live by “unwritten rules,” but rather by the UN Charter and “without establishing military alliances, creating the context for mutual development,” the Russian president stressed. This approach will be at the heart of Russia’s presidency of the BRICS group next year, Putin added.

There are 617,000 troops involved in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine and Russia's new regions spread along the almost 2,000-km-long frontline, according to Putin. “For now, there’s no need” for another wave of mobilization, especially considering that on average, 1,500 people volunteer to defend the country every day, he stressed.

Those, who were among the 300,000 mobilized during the first wave in autumn 2022 are “fighting hard”; 14 have been named Heroes of Russia, the president said, referring to the highest honorary title in the country.

Some countries are blocking UN Security Council decisions regarding the escalation in Gaza, Putin said, apparently referring to the US, which has vetoed several resolutions on the issue.

The president stressed that the UNSC is set up in such a way that decisions are only made if a consensus between all parties is reached. “It is important to preserve the veto mechanism, otherwise it [the UNSC] will turn into a sort of ‘talking shop,’” he argued.

“Moscow proceeds from the fact that UN decisions regarding the creation of two states in this region – Israel and Palestine – must be implemented,” Putin said.

The ongoing events in Gaza are a “catastrophe,” Putin said. “Look at [Russia’s] military operation in Ukraine and at what’s happening in Gaza, and see the difference.”

The president said there was “no such level of destruction” in Ukraine compared to the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called Gaza “the largest ‘graveyard for children,’” Putin noted. “Such a characterization is telling,” he added.

© Sputnik / Gavriil Grigorov