Russian President Vladimir Putin fielded questions from the heads of international news agencies on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday. The agencies included Chinese, Belarusian, German, French, Spanish, and Iranian state news outlets, as well as representatives of Reuters and the Associated Press.

The mammoth Q&A session lasted just over two hours and touched on a variety of subjects, including Russian domestic and foreign policy, the Ukraine conflict, and potential routes to rapprochement with Europe.

Here are the main topics discussed.

The Russian economy

When asked whether Russia could withstand the economic strain caused by the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions, Putin replied by citing Mark Twain’s joke: “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Despite past public statements in the West claiming that Russia’s economy had been “torn to shreds,” it has grown more than three times faster than that of the EU over the past three years, he stressed.

Russia has been forced to make some “tough decisions” to battle inflation, such as raising interest rates, but the “measures are yielding results,”according to Putin. In the meantime, Russian industrial production and citizens’ real incomes have continued to grow, he said.

In terms of purchasing power parity, a measure of how much the same basket of goods costs in different countries, Russia has surpassed all European countries, he said.

The Ukraine conflict

The Russian army is advancing along the entire line of contact, while Kiev’s troops are facing a critical lack of manpower, Putin said.

“Monthly, they lose about 40,000 people,” the president said, adding that, as a result, civilians are being “caught on the street like dogs” and drafted into the army. Kiev also loses around 20,000 more people to desertion each month, he added.

“Ukraine has no air defense system, only isolated elements, and lacks the strike systems that Russia possesses. Ukraine, unlike Russia, lacks hypersonic and cruise missiles,” he added.

‘State secret’ about Oreshnik

Russia did not use its Oreshnik dual-capable intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile “in the full sense” in strikes on Ukrainian territory.

We have not had a single combat use of the Oreshnik in the full sense of the word on Ukrainian territory,”Putin said, noting that Russia had previously “tested similar systems at training grounds, but not the Oreshnik.”

Russia has confirmed three separate strikes on Ukraine using the missile, which is designed to carry both nuclear and conventional warheads: against a defense industry facility in Dnepr in late 2024, a warplane plant in Lviv in January, and an unspecified target, dubbed by critics a “shed,” in the town of Belaya Tserkov near Kiev in May.

“Last time, to be completely honest – I’ll reveal to you a big military state secret – we just hit where it was convenient for us to see the results,” Putin said, adding that Russian drones later flew in to this “shed” to observe dispersal and impact effects. “It’s important for us to make decisions in the future on the full-scale use of Oreshnik against designated targets, including in urban areas.”

Is peace any closer?

Moscow is “without doubt” ready for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, provided it is based on the compromises agreed with US President Donald Trump in Anchorage last year, Putin said.

The difficulty lies in forcing Kiev to accept the terms, he stressed, noting that Moscow’s control of Donbass and other territories that voted to join Russia and a peace deal “do not contradict each other.”

“I get the impression that the ruling circles are not actually interested in a real cessation of hostilities,” he said, stressing that negotiations should not be predicated on a ceasefire that would only allow Kiev to rearm and regroup.

Is Zelensky legitimate?

Putin declined to directly answer whether Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky could serve as Kiev’s legitimate representative for signing a peace treaty, calling it “a question for lawyers.”

“We can only sign with people who are, without a doubt, in the full sense of the word, legitimate to sign documents of this kind,” he stressed. Zelensky’s presidential term expired in May 2024, and even discussions of new elections in Ukraine have since stalled.

Kiev’s European backers

The EU could potentially play “a positive role” in settling the conflict, Putin said. “But not by supplying weapons. Rather, by trying to convince the Kiev authorities to agree to the compromises we discussed,” he said.

However, Western European nations have so far shown no willingness to even talk to Russia as equals, Putin said.

“If there is a desire among the European side to work with us, they must abandon their colonial approach and talk to Russia as an equal partner,” he said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/641022-putin-ukraine-oreshnik-press/

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