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Full Text of Vladimir Putin’s Speech
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Below is the full text of Vladimir Putin’s speech, published by the Kremlin’s official website:
Citizens of Russia, citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, residents of theZaporozhye and Kherson regions, deputies of the State Duma, senators of the Russian Federation,
As you know, referendums have been held in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and theZaporozhye and Kherson regions. The ballots have been counted and the results have beenannounced. The people have made their unequivocal choice.
Today we will sign treaties on the accession of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s
Republic, Zaporozhye Region and Kherson Region to the Russian Federation. I have no doubt that theFederal Assembly will support the constitutional laws on the accession to Russia and theestablishment of four new regions, our new constituent entities of the Russian Federation, because thisis the will of millions of people.
It is undoubtedly their right, an inherent right sealed in Article 1 of the UN Charter, which directly states
the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
I repeat, it is an inherent right of the people. It is based on our historical affinity, and it is that right thatled generations of our predecessors, those who built and defended Russia for centuries since theperiod of Ancient Rus, to victory.
Here in Novorossiya, [Pyotr] Rumyantsev, [Alexander] Suvorov and [Fyodor] Ushakov fought theirbattles, and Catherine the Great and [Grigory] Potemkin founded new cities. Our grandfathers andgreat-grandfathers fought here to the bitter end during the Great Patriotic War.
We will always remember the heroes of the Russian Spring, those who refused to accept the neo-Nazicoup d’état in Ukraine in 2014, all those who died for the right to speak their native language, topreserve their culture, traditions and religion, and for the very right to live. We remember the soldiers of
Donbass, the martyrs of the “Odessa Khatyn,” the victims of inhuman terrorist attacks carried out by
the Kiev regime. We commemorate volunteers and militiamen, civilians, children, women, seniorcitizens, Russians, Ukrainians, people of various nationalities; popular leader of Donetsk Alexander
Zakharchenko; military commanders Arsen Pavlov and Vladimir Zhoga, Olga Kochura and Alexei
Mozgovoy; prosecutor of the Lugansk Republic Sergei Gorenko; paratrooper Nurmagomed
Gadzhimagomedov and all our soldiers and officers who died a hero’s death during the special military
operation. They are heroes. Heroes of great Russia. Please join me in a minute of silence to honour
their memory.
Behind the choice of millions of residents in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, in the
Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, is our common destiny and thousand-year history. People havepassed this spiritual connection on to their children and grandchildren. Despite all the trials they

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endured, they carried the love for Russia through the years. This is something no one can destroy.
That is why both older generations and young people – those who were born after the tragic collapseof the Soviet Union – have voted for our unity, for our common future.
In 1991 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, representatives of the party elite of that time made a decision toterminate the Soviet Union, without asking ordinary citizens what they wanted, and people suddenly
found themselves cut off from their homeland. This tore apart and dismembered our national
community and triggered a national catastrophe. Just like the government quietly demarcated theborders of Soviet republics, acting behind the scenes after the 1917 revolution, the last leaders of theSoviet Union, contrary to the direct expression of the will of the majority of people in the referendum of
1991, destroyed our great country, and simply made the people in the former republics face this as anaccomplished fact.
I can admit that they didn’t even know what they were doing and what consequences their actions
would have in the end. But it doesn’t matter now. There is no Soviet Union anymore; we cannot returnto the past. Actually, Russia no longer needs it today; this isn’t our ambition. But there is nothingstronger than the determination of millions of people who, by their culture, religion, traditions, andlanguage, consider themselves part of Russia, whose ancestors lived in a single country for centuries.
There is nothing stronger than their determination to return to their true historical homeland.
For eight long years, people in Donbass were subjected to genocide, shelling and blockades; inKherson and Zaporozhye, a criminal policy was pursued to cultivate hatred for Russia, for everything
Russian. Now too, during the referendums, the Kiev regime threatened schoolteachers, women who
worked in election commissions with reprisals and death. Kiev threatened millions of people who came
to express their will with repression. But the people of Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson weren’t
broken, and they had their say.
I want the Kiev authorities and their true handlers in the West to hear me now, and I want everyone toremember this: the people living in Lugansk and Donetsk, in Kherson and Zaporozhye have become
our citizens, forever.
We call on the Kiev regime to immediately cease fire and all hostilities; to end the war it unleashedback in 2014 and return to the negotiating table. We are ready for this, as we have said more thanonce. But the choice of the people in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson will not be
discussed. The decision has been made, and Russia will not betray it. Kiev’s current authorities should
respect this free expression of the people’s will; there is no other way. This is the only way to peace.
We will defend our land with all the forces and resources we have, and we will do everything we can toensure the safety of our people. This is the great liberating mission of our nation.
We will definitely rebuild the destroyed cities and towns, the residential buildings, schools, hospitals,
theatres and museums. We will restore and develop industrial enterprises, factories, infrastructure, as
well as the social security, pension, healthcare and education systems.
We will certainly work to improve the level of security. Together we will make sure that citizens in the
new regions can feel the support of all the people of Russia, of the entire nation, all the republics,
territories and regions of our vast Motherland.

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Friends, colleagues.
Today I would like to address our soldiers and officers who are taking part in the special military
operation, the fighters of Donbass and Novorossiya, those who went to military recruitment offices after
receiving a call-up paper under the executive order on partial mobilisation, and those who did thisvoluntarily, answering the call of their hearts. I would like to address their parents, wives and children,
to tell them what our people are fighting for, what kind of enemy we are up against, and who is pushing
the world into new wars and crises and deriving blood-stained benefits from this tragedy.
Our compatriots, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine who are part of our united people have seen with
their own eyes what the ruling class of the so-called West have prepared for humanity as a whole.
They have dropped their masks and shown what they are really made of.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the West decided that the world and all of us would permanently
accede to its dictates. In 1991, the West thought that Russia would never rise after such shocks andwould fall to pieces on its own. This almost happened. We remember the horrible 1990s, hungry, coldand hopeless. But Russia remained standing, came alive, grew stronger and occupied its rightful placein the world.
Meanwhile, the West continued and continues looking for another chance to strike a blow at us, toweaken and break up Russia, which they have always dreamed about, to divide our state and set ourpeoples against each other, and to condemn them to poverty and extinction. They cannot rest easy
knowing that there is such a great country with this huge territory in the world, with its natural wealth,resources and people who cannot and will not do someone else’s bidding.
The West is ready to cross every line to preserve the neo-colonial system which allows it to live off theworld, to plunder it thanks to the domination of the dollar and technology, to collect an actual tributefrom humanity, to extract its primary source of unearned prosperity, the rent paid to the hegemon. The
preservation of this annuity is their main, real and absolutely self-serving motivation. This is why total
de-sovereignisation is in their interest. This explains their aggression towards independent states,
traditional values and authentic cultures, their attempts to undermine international and integration
processes, new global currencies and technological development centres they cannot control. It is
critically important for them to force all countries to surrender their sovereignty to the United States.
In certain countries, the ruling elites voluntarily agree to do this, voluntarily agree to become vassals;
others are bribed or intimidated. And if this does not work, they destroy entire states, leaving behind
humanitarian disasters, devastation, ruins, millions of wrecked and mangled human lives, terrorist
enclaves, social disaster zones, protectorates, colonies and semi-colonies. They don’t care. All theycare about is their own benefit.
I want to underscore again that their insatiability and determination to preserve their unfettereddominance are the real causes of the hybrid war that the collective West is waging against Russia.
They do not want us to be free; they want us to be a colony. They do not want equal cooperation; theywant to loot. They do not want to see us a free society, but a mass of soulless slaves.
They see our thought and our philosophy as a direct threat. That is why they target our philosophers
for assassination. Our culture and art present a danger to them, so they are trying to ban them. Our

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development and prosperity are also a threat to them because competition is growing. They do notwant or need Russia, but we do.
I would like to remind you that in the past, ambitions of world domination have repeatedly shatteredagainst the courage and resilience of our people. Russia will always be Russia. We will continue todefend our values and our Motherland.
The West is counting on impunity, on being able to get away with anything. As a matter of fact, thiswas actually the case until recently. Strategic security agreements have been trashed; agreements
reached at the highest political level have been declared tall tales; firm promises not to expand NATOto the east gave way to dirty deception as soon as our former leaders bought into them; missile
defence, intermediate-range and shorter-range missile treaties have been unilaterally dismantled under
far-fetched pretexts.
And all we hear is, the West is insisting on a rules-based order. Where did that come from anyway?
Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them? Listen, this is just a lot of nonsense,
utter deceit, double standards, or even triple standards! They must think we’re stupid.
Russia is a great thousand-year-old power, a whole civilisation, and it is not going to live by suchmakeshift, false rules.
It was the so-called West that trampled on the principle of the inviolability of borders, and now it isdeciding, at its own discretion, who has the right to self-determination and who does not, who isunworthy of it. It is unclear what their decisions are based on or who gave them the right to decide in
the first place. They just assumed it.
That is why the choice of the people in Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye andKherson makes them so furiously angry. The West does not have any moral right to weigh in, or evenutter a word about freedom of democracy. It does not and it never did.
Western elites not only deny national sovereignty and international law. Their hegemony has
pronounced features of totalitarianism, despotism and apartheid. They brazenly divide the world into
their vassals – the so-called civilised countries – and all the rest, who, according to the designs oftoday’s Western racists, should be added to the list of barbarians and savages. False labels like “rogue
country” or “authoritarian regime” are already available, and are used to stigmatise entire nations andstates, which is nothing new. There is nothing new in this: deep down, the Western elites haveremained the same colonisers. They discriminate and divide peoples into the top tier and the rest.
We have never agreed to and will never agree to such political nationalism and racism. What else, if
not racism, is the Russophobia being spread around the world? What, if not racism, is the West’s
dogmatic conviction that its civilisation and neoliberal culture is an indisputable model for the entire
world to follow? “You’re either with us or against us.” It even sounds strange.
Western elites are even shifting repentance for their own historical crimes on everyone else,demanding that the citizens of their countries and other peoples confess to things they have nothing to
do with at all, for example, the period of colonial conquests.
It is worth reminding the West that it began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, followed by theALGORA.COM

worldwide slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India and Africa, thewars of England and France against China, as a result of which it was forced to open its ports to theopium trade. What they did was get entire nations hooked on drugs and purposefully exterminatedentire ethnic groups for the sake of grabbing land and resources, hunting people like animals. This iscontrary to human nature, truth, freedom and justice.
While we – we are proud that in the 20th century our country led the anti-colonial movement, which
opened up opportunities for many peoples around the world to make progress, reduce poverty andinequality, and defeat hunger and disease.
To emphasise, one of the reasons for the centuries-old Russophobia, the Western elites’ unconcealed
animosity toward Russia is precisely the fact that we did not allow them to rob us during the period ofcolonial conquests and forced the Europeans to trade with us on mutually beneficial terms. This wasachieved by creating a strong centralised state in Russia, which grew and got stronger based on thegreat moral values??of Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, as well as Russian
culture and the Russian word that were open to all.
There were numerous plans to invade Russia. Such attempts were made during the Time of Troubles
in the 17th century and in the period of ordeals after the 1917 revolution. All of them failed. The Westmanaged to grab hold of Russia’s wealth only in the late 20th century, when the state had been
destroyed. They called us friends and partners, but they treated us like a colony, using various
schemes to pump trillions of dollars out of the country. We remember. We have not forgotten anything.
A few days ago, people in Donetsk and Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye declared their support for
restoring our historical unity. Thank you!
Western countries have been saying for centuries that they bring freedom and democracy to othernations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of bringing democracy they suppressed andexploited, and instead of giving freedom they enslaved and oppressed. The unipolar world is inherently
anti-democratic and unfree; it is false and hypocritical through and through.
The United States is the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons twice, destroying thecities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. And they created a precedent.
Recall that during WWII the United States and Britain reduced Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne and manyother German cities to rubble, without the least military necessity. It was done ostentatiously and, torepeat, without any military necessity. They had only one goal, as with the nuclear bombing ofJapanese cities: to intimidate our country and the rest of the world.
The United States left a deep scar in the memory of the people of Korea and Vietnam with their carpet
bombings and use of napalm and chemical weapons.
It actually continues to occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and other countries, which they
cynically refer to as equals and allies. Look now, what kind of alliance is that? The whole world knowsthat the top officials in these countries are being spied on and that their offices and homes are bugged.
It is a disgrace, a disgrace for those who do this and for those who, like slaves, silently and meekly
swallow this arrogant behaviour.

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They call the orders and threats they make to their vassals Euro-Atlantic solidarity, and the creation of
biological weapons and the use of human test subjects, including in Ukraine, noble medical research.
It is their destructive policies, wars and plunder that have unleashed today’s massive wave of migrants.
Millions of people endure hardships and humiliation or die by the thousands trying to reach Europe.
They are exporting grain from Ukraine now. Where are they taking it under the guise of ensuring thefood security of the poorest countries? Where is it going? They are taking it to the self-same European
countries. Only five percent has been delivered to the poorest countries. More cheating and naked
deception again.
In effect, the American elite is using the tragedy of these people to weaken its rivals, to destroy nation
states. This goes for Europe and for the identities of France, Italy, Spain and other countries withcenturies-long histories.
Washington demands more and more sanctions against Russia and the majority of European
politicians obediently go along with it. They clearly understand that by pressuring the EU to completely
give up Russian energy and other resources, the United States is practically pushing Europe toward
deindustrialisation in a bid to get its hands on the entire European market. These European elites
understand everything – they do, but they prefer to serve the interests of others. This is no longer
servility but direct betrayal of their own peoples. God bless, it is up to them.
But the Anglo-Saxons believe sanctions are no longer enough and now they have turned tosubversion. It seems incredible but it is a fact – by causing explosions on Nord Stream’s international
gas pipelines passing along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they have actually embarked on thedestruction of Europe’s entire energy infrastructure. It is clear to everyone who stands to gain. Those
who benefit are responsible, of course.
The dictates of the US are backed up by crude force, on the law of the fist. Sometimes it is beautifully
wrapped sometimes there is no wrapping at all but the gist is the same – the law of the fist. Hence, thedeployment and maintenance of hundreds of military bases in all corners of the world, NATO
expansion, and attempts to cobble together new military alliances, such as AUKUS and the like. Muchis being done to create a Washington-Seoul-Tokyo military-political chain. All states that possess or
aspire to genuine strategic sovereignty and are capable of challenging Western hegemony, areautomatically declared enemies.
These are the principles that underlie US and NATO military doctrines that require total domination.
Western elites are presenting their neocolonialist plans with the same hypocrisy, claiming peacefulintentions, talking about some kind of deterrence. This evasive word migrates from one strategy toanother but really only means one thing – undermining any and all sovereign centres of power.
We have already heard about the deterrence of Russia, China and Iran. I believe next in line are othercountries of Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, as well as current US partners and allies.
After all, we know that when they are displeased, they introduce sanctions against their allies as well –against this or that bank or company. This is their practice and they will expand it. They haveeverything in their sights, including our next-door neighbours – the CIS countries.

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At the same time, the West has clearly been engaged in wishful thinking for a long time. In launching
the sanctions blitzkrieg against Russia, for example, they thought that they could once again line up
the whole world at their command. As it turns out, however, such a bright prospect does not excite
everyone – other than complete political masochists and admirers of other unconventional forms ofinternational relations. Most states refuse to ”snap a salute“ and instead choose the sensible path ofcooperation with Russia.
The West clearly did not expect such insubordination. They simply got used to acting according to atemplate, to grab whatever they please, by blackmail, bribery, intimidation, and convinced themselvesthat these methods would work forever, as if they had fossilised in the past.
Such self-confidence is a direct product not only of the notorious concept of exceptionalism – although
it never ceases to amaze – but also of the real ”information hunger“ in the West. The truth has beendrowned in an ocean of myths, illusions and fakes, using extremely aggressive propaganda, lying like
Goebbels. The more unbelievable the lie, the quicker people will believe it – that is how they operate,according to this principle.
But people cannot be fed with printed dollars and euros. You can’t feed them with those pieces of
paper, and the virtual, inflated capitalisation of western social media companies can’t heat their homes.
Everything I am saying is important. And what I just said is no less so: you can’t feed anyone withpaper – you need food; and you can’t heat anyone’s home with these inflated capitalisations – youneed energy.
That is why politicians in Europe have to convince their fellow citizens to eat less, take a shower lessoften and dress warmer at home. And those who start asking fair questions like “Why is that, in fact?”
are immediately declared enemies, extremists and radicals. They point back at Russia and say: that is
the source of all your troubles. More lies.
I want to make special note of the fact that there is every reason to believe that the Western elites are
not going to look for constructive ways out of the global food and energy crisis that they and they alone
are to blame for, as a result of their long-term policy, dating back long before our special military
operation in Ukraine, in Donbass. They have no intention of solving the problems of injustice andinequality. I am afraid they would rather use other formulas they are more comfortable with.
And here it is important to recall that the West bailed itself out of its early 20th century challenges withWorld War I. Profits from World War II helped the United States finally overcome the Great Depression
and become the largest economy in the world, and to impose on the planet the power of the dollar as a
global reserve currency. And the 1980s crisis – things came to a head in the 1980s again – the Westemerged from it unscathed largely by appropriating the inheritance and resources of the collapsed anddefunct Soviet Union. That’s a fact.
Now, in order to free itself from the latest web of challenges, they need to dismantle Russia as well asother states that choose a sovereign path of development, at all costs, to be able to further plunderother nations’ wealth and use it to patch their own holes. If this does not happen, I cannot rule out thatthey will try to trigger a collapse of the entire system, and blame everything on that, or, God forbid,
decide to use the old formula of economic growth through war.

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Russia is aware of its responsibility to the international community and will make every effort to ensurethat cooler heads prevail.
The current neocolonial model is ultimately doomed; this much is obvious. But I repeat that its realmasters will cling to it to the end. They simply have nothing to offer the world except to maintain thesame system of plundering and racketeering.
They do not give a damn about the natural right of billions of people, the majority of humanity, tofreedom and justice, the right to determine their own future. They have already moved on to the radical
denial of moral, religious, and family values.
Let’s answer some very simple questions for ourselves. Now I would like to return to what I said andwant to address also all citizens of the country – not just the colleagues that are in the hall – but all
citizens of Russia: do we want to have here, in our country, in Russia,“parent number one, parent
number two and parent number three” (they have completely lost it!) instead of mother and father? Do
we want our schools to impose on our children, from their earliest days in school, perversions that leadto degradation and extinction? Do we want to drum into their heads the ideas that certain othergenders exist along with women and men and to offer them gender reassignment surgery? Is that what
we want for our country and our children? This is all unacceptable to us. We have a different future of
our own.
Let me repeat that the dictatorship of the Western elites targets all societies, including the citizens ofWestern countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This complete renunciation of what it means
to be human, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, and the suppression of freedom are coming
to resemble a “religion in reverse” – pure Satanism. Exposing false messiahs, Jesus Christ said in the
Sermon on the Mount: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” These poisonous fruits are already obvious
to people, and not only in our country but also in all countries, including many people in the West itself.
The world has entered a period of a fundamental, revolutionary transformation. New centres of power
are emerging. They represent the majority – the majority! – of the international community. They are
ready not only to declare their interests but also to protect them. They see in multipolarity an
opportunity to strengthen their sovereignty, which means gaining genuine freedom, historicalprospects, and the right to their own independent, creative and distinctive forms of development, to aharmonious process.
As I have already said, we have many like-minded people in Europe and the United States, and wefeel and see their support. An essentially emancipatory, anti-colonial movement against unipolar
hegemony is taking shape in the most diverse countries and societies. Its power will only grow withtime. It is this force that will determine our future geopolitical reality.
Friends,

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Today, we are fighting for a just and free path, first of all for ourselves, for Russia, in order to leavedictate and despotism in the past. I am convinced that countries and peoples understand that a policy
based on the exceptionalism of whoever it may be and the suppression of other cultures and peoplesis
inherently criminal, and that we must close this shameful chapter. The ongoing collapse of Western
hegemony is irreversible. And I repeat: things will never be the same.
The battlefield to which destiny and history have called us is a battlefield for our people, for the great
historical Russia. For the great historical Russia, for future generations, our children, grandchildren andgreat-grandchildren. We must protect them against enslavement and monstrous experiments that aredesigned to cripple their minds and souls.
Today, we are fighting so that it would never occur to anyone that Russia, our people, our language, or
our culture can be erased from history. Today, we need a consolidated society, and this consolidation
can only be based on sovereignty, freedom, creation, and justice. Our values ??are humanity, mercy
and compassion.
And I want to close with the words of a true patriot Ivan Ilyin: “If I consider Russia my Motherland, thatmeans that I love as a Russian, contemplate and think, sing and speak as a Russian; that I believe inthe spiritual strength of the Russian people. Its spirit is my spirit; its destiny is my destiny; its suffering
is my grief; and its prosperity is my joy.”Behind these words stands a glorious spiritual choice, which, for more than a thousand years ofRussian statehood, was followed by many generations of our ancestors. Today, we are making thischoice; the citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the residents of theZaporozhye and Kherson regions have made this choice. They made the choice to be with theirpeople, to be with their Motherland, to share in its destiny, and to be victorious together with it.
The truth is with us, and behind us is Russia!