Russia-Ukraine War: Putin Rails Against ‘Western Elites’ in Speech Aimed at U.S. Conservatives (Published 2022) (2024)

President Vladimir V. Putin, in a speech seemingly aimed more at winning over political conservatives abroad than his own citizens, declared on Thursday that Russia’s battle was with “Western elites,” not with the West itself.

Mr. Putin, addressing an annual foreign policy conference outside Moscow, appeared intent on capitalizing on political divisions in the United States and its allies that have only heightened since they began showering Ukraine with military aid to fend off the Russian invasion.

Many of the themes of the Russian leader’s speech were familiar, but they took on particular resonance given the coming midterm elections in the United States and growing discontent in Europe over the costs of the war.

“There are at least two Wests,” Mr. Putin said.

One, he said, is a West of “traditional, mainly Christian values” with which Russians feel kinship. But, he said, “there’s another West — aggressive, cosmopolitan, neocolonial, acting as the weapon of the neoliberal elite,” and trying to impose its “pretty strange” values on the rest of the world.

Mr. Putin, as he often does, portrayed Russia as threatened by the possible expansion of NATO — and the values of its liberal democracies — to include countries like Ukraine that were once part of the Soviet Union.

He denied that Moscow was preparing to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. “We have no need to do this,” he said. “There’s no sense for us, neither political nor military.”

It is Mr. Putin himself, however, who has raised that prospect, as have other senior Russian officials. And Kremlin assurances have proved unreliable. In the days before the war began, for example, Russia denied that it planned to invade Ukraine.

“This is a trick — it shouldn’t make anyone relax,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst, noting that Mr. Putin has blamed the West and its support for an independent Ukraine for every escalation in the war. “His goal is to show that escalation is the product of Western policies.”

In Ukraine, officials ridiculed Mr. Putin’s speech. Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, said the Russian president was accusing the West of what he has been doing himself, chiefly violating another country’s sovereignty.

“Any speech by Putin can be described in two words: ‘for Freud,’” Mr. Podolyak posted on Twitter.

KYIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces pillage occupied Kherson and Moscow rushes in reinforcements ahead of a looming battle for the strategic southern port, the city’s Kremlin-appointed proxy rulers dispatched a team to a majestic 18th-century stone cathedral on a special mission.

They were sent to steal the bones of Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin.

The memory of the 18th-century commander is vivid for those in the Kremlin bent on restoring the Russian imperium. It was Potemkin who persuaded his lover, Catherine the Great, to annex Crimea in 1783. The founder of Kherson and Odesa, he sought the creation of a “New Russia,” a dominion that stretched across what is now southern Ukraine to the Black Sea, and when President Vladimir V. Putin invaded Ukraine in February with the goal of restoring part of a long-lost empire, he invoked Potemkin’s vision.

Now, with Mr. Putin’s army having failed in its march toward Odesa and threatened with being driven from Kherson, Mr. Putin’s grand plans are in jeopardy — but the belief among Kremlin loyalists in what they view as Russia’s rightful empire still runs deep.

So it was that a team of Kremlin loyalists descended into a crypt below a solitary white marble gravestone inside St. Catherine’s Cathedral.

To reach Potemkin’s remains, they would have opened a trapdoor in the floor and climbed down a narrow passageway, according to people who have visited the crypt. There they would have found a simple wooden coffin on a raised dais, marked with a single cross.

Under the lid of the coffin, a small black bag held Potemkin’s skull and bones, carefully numbered.

The Russian-appointed head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said that Potemkin’s remains were taken to an undisclosed location east of the Dnipro River, where Russian forces may be making preparations to retreat as Ukrainian troops edge closer to the city.

“We transported to the left bank the remains of the holy prince that were in St. Catherine’s Cathedral,” Mr. Saldo said in an interview broadcast on Russian television. “We transported Potemkin himself.”

Local Ukrainian activists confirmed that the church has been looted and that, along with the bones, statues of venerated Russian heroes have been removed.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, the author of the book “Catherine the Great and Potemkin,” said in an interview that shortly after its publication in 2000, the Kremlin contacted him to say how much Mr. Putin admired his work. But Mr. Montefiore said on Thursday that Mr. Putin’s reading of history was deeply flawed, and that his war has reduced to ruins Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol and Mykolaiv that Potemkin and early Russian imperialists helped to build. (The term “Potemkin village” was coined to describe an impressive facade constructed to hide an undesirable state of affairs, although Mr. Montefiore says the term was incorrectly ascribed to the prince, whose achievements in present-day Ukraine were real.)

“Potemkin would have despised Putin and everything he stands for,” he said.

But the bones’ importance to Russia, Mr. Montefiore added, underscored the “power of history and the power of dead bodies,” especially for the Kremlin, which has built its case for war on a distorted version of history.

Kremlin loyalists have made no effort to hide the theft. Mr. Saldo said: “These were my decisions because these are my powers, my duties and responsibilities.”

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said on Thursday that the Pentagon had no evidence that either Ukraine or Russia has any intention of detonating a radioactive “dirty bomb,” and said he was “tamping down dangerous talk” of anyone using such a weapon.

President Vladimir V. Putin repeated Russia’s unfounded claims on Thursday that Ukraine was preparing to explode a dirty bomb on its territory and blame Moscow. Ukraine and the West say that the claims are disinformation that could be used as a pretext by the Kremlin to escalate the war, possibly with a tactical nuclear weapon.

“We have not seen anything to indicate that Putin has made a decision to use a dirty bomb, nor have we seen any indications that the Ukrainians are planning such a thing,” Mr. Austin told reporters at the Pentagon.

A dirty bomb is not a nuclear weapon, but an improvised device that uses conventional explosives to spread radioactive material.

Mr. Austin said he was “certainly concerned about escalation” in the wake of Russia’s recent claims about a dirty bomb attack. “That’s why we believe that it’s important to communicate with our allies and partners, and also with our adversaries,” he said, noting that as long as the United States was able to convey “what’s important to us, then I think we have an opportunity to manage escalation.”

The need to prevent nuclear war has hung over White House decision-making since before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Mr. Putin denied in a speech on Thursday that Moscow was preparing to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. It is Mr. Putin himself, however, who has raised that prospect, as have other senior Russian officials — as President Biden noted on Thursday.

“If he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it?” Mr. Biden said in an interview with NewsNation. “He’s been very dangerous in how he’s approached this.”

Mr. Putin’s veiled nuclear threats have stirred growing alarm in Washington. Last Friday, Mr. Austin initiated a phone call with Sergei K. Shoigu, his Russian counterpart, the first time the two men had spoken since May.

The conversation was meant to identify the red lines that could potentially provoke Russia to launch a nuclear attack on Ukraine and to clarify for the Biden administration why Mr. Putin has been raising the prospect of a nuclear strike in Ukraine.

U.S. Defense Department officials were surprised when, two days later, Mr. Shoigu requested another call, at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, in which he accused Ukraine of preparing to use a dirty bomb.

The United States has also condemned Moscow’s recent spate of attacks using long-range missiles and exploding Iranian-made drones to cripple the electrical and heating infrastructure in Ukrainian cities and demoralize the population.

Ukraine has pleaded with the West for more advanced air defense systems, and Mr. Austin said on Thursday that the United States could begin training Ukrainian troops to use two National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, known as NASAMS, as soon as next month.

The systems — each equipped with radar-guided missiles powerful enough to take down fighter jets, combat drones and cruise missiles — would provide short- to medium-range coverage over about 18 to 30 miles.

As President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia seeks to counter the crush of Western sanctions by bolstering Moscow’s ties with its biggest and most important ally, China, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, on Thursday gave a full-throated endorsem*nt of Moscow and Mr. Putin’s leadership.

In a telephone call with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, Mr. Wang said that any attempt to block the progress between the two countries would never succeed, according to a statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry. Beijing, he added, firmly supported Mr. Putin’s stewardship of Russia and wanted to strengthen China’s relations with Moscow.

Some American officials had hoped that Mr. Putin’s recent veiled threats about using nuclear weapons in Ukraine might drive a wedge between China and Russia.

Mr. Putin sought to play down the possibility of nuclear escalation in a speech on Thursday, saying Russia had “no need” to use a tactical nuclear weapon. “There’s no sense for us, neither political nor military,” he said. Kremlin assurances about military plans have in the past proven to be unreliable.

In the phone call with the Russian foreign minister, Mr. Wang emphasized that ties between the two countries had seldom been stronger.

While the Chinese statement did not specifically mention the war in Ukraine, the robust support for the Kremlin appeared to contrast with China’s stance in September, when Mr. Putin met China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Uzbekistan. During their meeting, Mr. Xi appeared to show some restraint in his support for Russia, and withheld a public endorsem*nt of Mr. Putin’s war.

Mr. Putin acknowledged last month that China had “questions and concerns” about Russia’s war in Ukraine, a notable, if cryptic, admission that Moscow lacked the full backing of its most powerful partner on the world stage. Mr. Xi had pledged a friendship with “no limits” just three weeks before Russia invaded.

China and Russia have a symbiotic relationship, and the two countries have been seeking to show a united front against what they consider American hegemony.

Moscow derives important advantages from its relationship with Beijing, and the pain inflicted by Western sanctions has made Chinese support all the more imperative. China has also emerged as an important buyer of Russian commodities, purchases that have helped replenish Moscow’s coffers.

Beijing, however, has been engaged in a delicate balancing act. It wants to project strength in its increasingly fraught competition with the United States. At the same time, providing major backing to Russia, economically or militarily, risks violating Western sanctions and undermining China’s economy.

The Russian Foreign Ministry put out a statement that also stressed the strong ties between the two countries, saying Russia and China would continue to work together on the U.N. Security Council and in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

WASHINGTON — Eight months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as China pushes to increase its nuclear, space and cyberforces, the Pentagon outlined a sweeping new strategy on Thursday that called for more robust deterrence at an increasingly tense moment in international security.

The document, the National Defense Strategy, which also includes reviews of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and missile defenses, has been circulating for months in classified form on Capitol Hill. The unclassified version published on Thursday is devoid of much specificity about how the Pentagon will shift its weapons and personnel to fit a new era of heightened superpower competition.

The last national defense strategy, published in 2018 by the Trump administration, was the first since the end of the Cold War to refocus U.S. defenses on what it called the twin “revisionist” powers of China and Russia. President Biden’s document builds on that theme but distinguishes between describing China as a “pacing” technological and military challenger, and Russia as an “acute” threat but a declining power.

It prioritizes threats to the country, maps out the military’s response in broad terms and guides Pentagon policy and budget decisions on a range of issues, such as what weapons to develop and the shape of the armed forces.

The new document describes a Russia armed with 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons and not bound by any treaty that limits the number, raising “the possibility it would use these forces to try to win a war on its periphery or avoid defeat if it was in danger of losing a conventional war.”

That is exactly what President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has threatened.

The European Central Bank imposed another large interest-rate increase on Thursday, as policymakers tried to quell the region’s record-high inflation, driven in part by the European Union’s efforts to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine by ending its dependence on cheap Russian gas.

The central bank, which sets monetary policy for the 19 countries that use the euro, raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, matching the previous increase last month. After a slow start in raising rates — its July increase was the first in more than a decade — the bank said it had rapidly tightened its policy stance as inflation has proved worse and more persistent than the bank expected.

Consumer prices rose 9.9 percent on average in the eurozone in September from a year earlier, the fastest pace on record, driven by food and energy prices.

The future path of inflation is increasingly uncertain, though the rate is expected to stay above the central bank’s target for the next two years. Europe’s natural gas prices, which have heavily influenced the inflation rate, have fallen recently as the weather has stayed relatively warm and governments have succeeded in filling storage facilities.

But prices are still double what they were a year ago, and analysts say there remains a risk that prices could rise sharply again. Prices are higher on futures contracts for the winter, when stockpiles are expected to dwindle.

European governments have been in disagreement about how they should respond to rising energy prices, with richer countries taking advantage of their better fiscal positions to spend more heavily. Germany recently announced a €200 billion ($201 billion) aid plan for its households, businesses and industries.

KYIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces continue to launch drone and missile assaults from Belarus and troop movements near Ukraine’s northern border stir concern, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday that it had increased the number of soldiers in the area.

Brig. Gen. Oleksii Hromov, the deputy head of the army general staff’s main operations directorate, said that Kyiv had no new evidence to suggest that Belarusian or Russian forces were preparing an offensive strike force. But concern has mounted in recent days after the Kremlin dispatched thousands of soldiers to Belarus.

Moscow used Belarus, its closest military and political ally, as a launching pad for its invasion of Ukraine, and the movement of Russian soldiers there is closely monitored by Ukraine and its Western allies.

“There are and there will be threats,” General Hromov said at his daily briefing on Thursday. “We have already increased our grouping in the northern operational zone.”

Military analysts say that the Kremlin may be hoping to force Ukraine to expend military resources with the threat to the north as Russian forces struggle to hold defensive lines in southern and eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine does not provide details about troop movements.

Ukraine’s government has issued broad statements in recent weeks indicating that it was aware of a threat, with the military releasing a video recently warning that “if the Belarusian army supports Russian aggression,” Kyiv would respond “with our entire arsenal of weapons.”

But the more immediate concern for Ukrainian officials is the continuing use of Belarus as a launching pad for aerial assaults.

Russia has deployed its troops to airfields in Belarus, General Hromov said, and this week, it used Belarusian territory to carry out 10 launches of Iranian-made drones, he said.

The “Belarusian Gayun” project, which monitors Russian military activity on the territory of Belarus, said that some of those drones were launched from the Belarusian part of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the isolated area around the Chernobyl power plant, where the meltdown of a reactor in 1986 caused the worst nuclear disaster in history.

Because the area is closed to the public and people do not live there, the group said, there is less likelihood that the launches will be witnessed.

WASHINGTON — Since before the war, Russia has spread disinformation about its need to stamp out Nazism in Ukraine. But in recent days, Moscow’s propaganda has shifted, arguing that it is battling terrorism and falsely accusing Ukraine of planning a dirty bomb attack as part of that narrative.

The new propaganda, spread on social media and in the news, also includes unsupported accusations that the Ukrainian government intends to destroy a dam in its own territory, according to European and American government officials and independent researchers.

The push is meant to shore up Russian support for the war but also to denigrate Ukraine in the West, potentially softening support for more arms shipments to Kyiv, officials and researchers say.

“They seem to have decided on a talking point that this is a counterterrorism operation now,” said Kyle Walter, who leads the U.S. investigation team at Logically, a tech start-up that helps governments and businesses counter disinformation. “Rather than framing this as something that’s anti-Nazi or anti-Satanist, you now have a concerted effort to frame it as a counterterrorism operation.”

The counterterrorism narratives, according to U.S. officials, are part of a wider propaganda web, all aimed at making Russians feel more involved in the war.

Social media posts on the possibility of a dirty bomb attack have gained traction in Russia. FilterLabs, a firm that tracks public sentiment in Russia and elsewhere, noted a surge this week in discussions about nuclear terrorism by Ukraine.

Myanmar has been cut off from the West and shunned by its neighbors after its military seized power last year and imposed a brutal crackdown. Even China, its closest ally, has signaled that it is not thrilled about the instability.

With few friends left in the world, the junta, desperate for legitimacy, is embracing deeper ties with Russia.

It is a relationship of unequals where each side has something to gain. Myanmar gets resources, ammunition and a powerful partner to back it at the United Nations, while Russia gets another customer at a time when it is struggling to find sources of revenue.

And both can use the other to undermine the Western sanctions imposed on them — Myanmar, for launching a coup, and Russia, for invading Ukraine. In their vision, they are part of a new world order, two countries led by strongmen ideologically opposed to democracy.

Ever since the coup in February of last year, the head of Myanmar’s junta, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has been on a charm offensive. He has visited Russia three times, more than any other country. Just days after the war began in Ukraine, his administration was quick to say that Moscow had “done its part to maintain its sovereignty,” the only country in Southeast Asia to endorse the invasion.

It all laid the groundwork for his biggest diplomatic achievement yet: a meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin.

The energy crisis prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to speed up rather than slow down the global transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner technologies like wind, solar and electric vehicles, the world’s leading energy agency said Thursday.

While some countries have been burning more fossil fuels like coal this year in response to natural gas shortages caused by the war in Ukraine, that effect is expected to be short-lived, the International Energy Agency said in its annual World Energy Outlook, a 524-page report that forecasts global energy trends to 2050.

Instead, for the first time, the agency now predicts that worldwide demand for every type of fossil fuel will peak in the near future.

One major reason is that many countries have responded to soaring prices for fossil fuels this year by embracing wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear power plants, hydrogen fuels, electric vehicles and electric heat pumps. In the United States, Congress recently approved more than $370 billion in spending for such technologies. Japan is pursuing a new “green transformation” program that will help fund low-emissions technologies. China, India and South Korea have all ratcheted up national targets for renewable and nuclear power.

Yet the shift toward cleaner sources of energy still isn’t happening fast enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming, the agency said, not unless governments take much stronger action to reduce their planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions over the next few years.