Interfax: Putin’s address sends clear signal Russia is “strong and confident in itself” – press secretary

MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) – The central idea of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the Federal Assembly, delivered on Thursday, is that Russia remains strong even as it faces unprecedented pressure today, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said.

“The president sent a clear signal. I even marked it in my notes. In my opinion, the key message of the first part [of the address] is that we are strong and are confident in ourselves. Secondly, we have encountered unprecedented pressure and attempts have been made to interfere in our internal affairs,” Peskov told the Rossiya 24 television station, commenting on the Russian leader’s annual address to the Federal Assembly.

“Russia’s step-by-step growth and the strengthening of its positions have provoked absolute dislike from our “friends”, who started to do everything in their power to stop Russia from being a prosperous country which confidently stands on its feet and is able to insist on and defend its sovereign rights in any situation,” he said.

“The president’s speech makes it clear that we ourselves do not want to dictate our terms to anyone, but we have not permitted and will not permit anyone to do the same in relation to us. We have plenty of our own potential for it,” Peskov said.

“This address is absolutely impeccable from the point of view of logic in the current situation because the events we can see happening in Russia’s economy today go hand in hand with global economic tendencies, as well as the world’s political and geopolitical processes,” he said.

“Indeed, there were expectations that the president would produce some huge pill that would cure all economic woes, that he would show this pill and everything would be over. But such things do not happen in real life,” the press secretary said.

[featured image is file photo, adapted from image at kremlin.ru/wikimedia commons]