Vladimir Putin. File photo.

 

Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, declared in a lengthy televised session that the West's respect for Russia could prevent future wars. Dismissing claims of Moscow’s plans to attack Europe as "nonsense," Putin emphasised the need for mutual respect, asserting, "There won't be any operations if you treat us with respect." The address, lasting nearly four and a half hours, featured both public and journalist questions, with Putin underlining the importance of addressing Russia's concerns, particularly regarding Nato expansion.

 

Putin accused Nato of breaching a supposed 1990 promise about its eastward expansion, a claim denied by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The Moscow-hosted event reportedly drew over three million questions, with only select critical remarks from the public prominently displayed. Putin’s speech also touched upon Russia’s ailing economy, where he acknowledged price hikes and announced a VAT increase from 20% to 22% from 1 January, amidst the central bank's decision to lower interest rates to 16%.

 

Despite addressing various domestic issues, tension surrounding the Ukraine conflict remained prevalent. Putin stated a willingness to end hostilities but reiterated demands for Ukrainian forces to withdraw from certain regions and to abandon Nato integration efforts. The ongoing war has seen Russia striving for control over eastern Ukraine, particularly the Donbas area. As the military confrontation continues, Putin criticised the West, notably the US, for allegedly hindering peace efforts while praising Donald Trump's peace plan.

 

A key component of Trump's proposal involves arranging new elections in Ukraine, with Putin suggesting the halting of military actions during voting. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s recent attack on a Russian oil tanker in the Mediterranean was downplayed by Putin, who stated it would neither achieve desired results nor impede Russian exports. When Western correspondents questioned Putin about responsibility for wartime casualties, he responded by blaming the ongoing conflict on the West's influence over the Kyiv regime.

 

Talks are unfolding in Miami involving representatives from the US, Germany, France, and the UK, alongside Ukrainian and Russian envoys. Putin reinforced his openness to cooperation with Western nations but stressed the prerequisite of reciprocal respect and security assurances for Russia. As discussions persist, European intelligence warns about Russia's potential military aims and emphasises the need for preparedness against covert threats, reported the BBC.

 

 

Key Takeaways

• Putin promises no new wars if Russia is treated with respect.
• Suggestions of Russia attacking Europe are dismissed as nonsense.
• Economic struggles acknowledged with announced VAT rise.

 

Related Stories

Putin Proposes Renewed Peace Talks with Ukraine Amid International Pressure

Putin Signals US-Led Ukraine Peace Talks but Warns of Land Grabs

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from BBC 2025-12-20

 

 

 

Putin is a liar. As soon as the European nations talk about building up defence spending you get the lies and propaganda spilling out from Russia to stop that from happening. Show strength and Russia won't be a problem, get lulled into showing weakness and you'll only find out when it is too late. 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Putin accused Nato of breaching a supposed 1990 promise about its eastward expansion,

NATO never made this promise. 

The wandering four-hour conference invited carefully curated questions on a range of issues, but a number of unfiltered comments also showed up on a digital comments board, complaining about internet outages and social media bans.

One person asked: “Why do ordinary people live worse than Papuans [citizens of Papua New Guinea]?”

 

Ukraine strikes Russian tanker after receiving £80bn loan from EU

"Putin Assures Peace If West Respects Russia's Interests" should be

"West Assures Peace If Russia Respects treaties it signed"

Pathological liar and corrupt bully. Stalin redux.

“Putin Assures Peace If West Respects Russia's Interests”

 

Translation: Russia gets everything it wants, Ukraine ceases to exist and becomes a vassal state, the West can go **** themselves and the Baltic states and/or Poland are next in line to be invaded. 
 

Anyone who believes Putin’s ‘promises’ should have their heads examined.

What he's really trying to say is if the West agrees to push Ukraine into surrendering all territory that we've taken over, and if they can convince Ukraine not join NATO, and everything goes my way, then we will agree to stop fighting. 

Should have taken the Istanbul proposals..sadly they believed Boris

and chose to fight.  

6 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

What he's really trying to say is if the West agrees to push Ukraine into surrendering all territory that we've taken over, and if they can convince Ukraine not join NATO, and everything goes my way, then we will agree to stop fighting. 

 

Give him that and he just regroups for later. 

It's only Russia and Putin thats causing the problem neither Russia nor Putin deserves respect. 

 

Putin is worried Europe is finally waking up, as a direct result of him invading Ukraine two more countries Finland and Sweden have joined NATO.

 

Europes defence industries are gearing up and developing new weapons and capabilities.

 

The EU is spending 380 billion Euro supporting various defence R&D and procurement facilities.

 

EU's Security Action for Europe (Safe) fund, a low-interest loan scheme that is part of the EU's drive to boost defence spending by €800bn to rearm the continent and support European defence industries, in response to the growing threat from Russia. Canada is also participating in (Safe)

 

European countries are also making plans to increase both their active and reserve forces.

 

Reserve forces on the rise: How Europe's reacting to the threat posed by Russia. https://www.forcesnews.com/services/reserves/reserve-forces-rise-how-europes-reacting-threat-posed-russia?

 

None of this would have been necessary if it wasn't for Russia Putin and his imperialistic ambitions to make Russia great again and recreate a new USSR.

 

Respect is earned and not something you would give to a pathological psycho who is quite happy to see millions of people die and suffer for his own ends.

22 minutes ago, Bannoi said:

It's only Russia and Putin thats causing the problem neither Russia nor Putin deserves respect. 

 

Putin is worried Europe is finally waking up, as a direct result of him invading Ukraine two more countries Finland and Sweden have joined NATO.

 

Europes defence industries are gearing up and developing new weapons and capabilities.

 

The EU is spending 380 billion Euro supporting various defence R&D and procurement facilities.

 

EU's Security Action for Europe (Safe) fund, a low-interest loan scheme that is part of the EU's drive to boost defence spending by €800bn to rearm the continent and support European defence industries, in response to the growing threat from Russia. Canada is also participating in (Safe)

 

European countries are also making plans to increase both their active and reserve forces.

 

Reserve forces on the rise: How Europe's reacting to the threat posed by Russia. https://www.forcesnews.com/services/reserves/reserve-forces-rise-how-europes-reacting-threat-posed-russia?

 

None of this would have been necessary if it wasn't for Russia Putin and his imperialistic ambitions to make Russia great again and recreate a new USSR.

 

Respect is earned and not something you would give to a pathological psycho who is quite happy to see millions of people die and suffer for his own ends.

Indeed, Putin is the main cause of the reinforcement of NATO countries.

 

Before the invasion of Ukraine, defense budgets in Europe had been continuously decreasing (as a % of gdp) as well as the US military presence. Without the invasion of Ukraine, NATO would have remained a non-threat to Russia!

What are Russia's 'interests'? Claiming former USSR countries belong to Russia?

2 hours ago, johng said:

Should have taken the Istanbul proposals..sadly they believed Boris

and chose to fight.  

I see you are still stuck on Boris, try catching up a few years......

17 minutes ago, transam said:

I see you are still stuck on Boris, try catching up a few years......

I see you still don't understand the significance of the Boris intervention..but yes too late now  Russia will  push for a decisive military victory..Ukraine/ NATO/EU will have the choice  except the Russian terms  or go for all out WWIII

lets go M.A.D

 

 

Just now, johng said:

I see you still don't understand the significance of the Boris intervention..but yes too late now  Russia will  push for a decisive military victory..Ukraine/ NATO/EU will have the choice  except the Russian terms  or go for all out WWIII

lets go M.A.D

 

 

I think you are just a lost Putin fanboy, you carry on..........😏

Oh, where do you come from..?  🤫

12 hours ago, TedG said:

NATO never made this promise. 

 

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early

3 hours ago, carlf said:

 

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early

When did NATO get together and agree on this? 

5 hours ago, parallelman said:

What are Russia's 'interests'? Claiming former USSR countries belong to Russia?

Exactly!

I'm surprised Putin waited as long as he did to take action as NATO crept closer and closer to his western border.

 

I suspect many people in Europe, the U.S. and even Canada are going to get very rich by this push to double up on their militaries and all the hardware that comes with it. Of course Trump, who doesn't like NATO, is pushing them hard to to do this because U.S. military establishment and his backers will be the biggest winners. Ironic since Putin is his pal. But this has always been about money and power.

10 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

I'm surprised Putin waited as long as he did to take action as NATO crept closer and closer to his western border.

Vladimir's success in his fight against fascism depends directly on the intensity of Western support for Vladimir's enemies. The West's decision-making center is located in Washington. Therefore, before launching a war, Vladimir needed to accumulate sufficient nuclear arsenal to gradually reduce the flow of weapons to Ukraine during the war by constantly releasing new, more and more terrifying nuclear toys. 

9 hours ago, johng said:

I see you still don't understand the significance of the Boris intervention..but yes too late now  Russia will  push for a decisive military victory..Ukraine/ NATO/EU will have the choice  except the Russian terms  or go for all out WWIII

lets go M.A.D

 

 

Russia lacks the chops to score a decisive military victory.

4 hours ago, zmisha said:

Vladimir's success in his fight against fascism depends directly on the intensity of Western support for Vladimir's enemies. The West's decision-making center is located in Washington. Therefore, before launching a war, Vladimir needed to accumulate sufficient nuclear arsenal to gradually reduce the flow of weapons to Ukraine during the war by constantly releasing new, more and more terrifying nuclear toys. 

Putin is the one acting like a fascist.

Putin Assures Peace If West Respects Russia's Interests

 

Yeah, "give us all that we demand and there will be peace."

The USSR would say that all the time, "We only want peace, all you have to do is back off and let us do as we wish.  By you not acceding YOU become the war monger!"

I saw through that one when I was in grade school, in Kruschhev days.

Here's the great peacemaker now, telling the Yanks what they can do with their corn.

 

 

Who to believe, Putin, Trump of today's horoscope? - I will go with the latter; the former two are as reliable as Fox News; Disney's Fantasy Land has more credibility.

Putin  has finally realised that he can’t win the war with Ukraine. Russia economy is no shape to support his personal agenda. His associate in the White House has been dealt a harsh reality by Congress with pledges to continue support for Ukraine. Now with EU massive financial aid, Ukraine has the financial means to continue fighting Russia aggression. Ukraine military will continue to improve and prolong the war until Putin cry uncle or be removed internally. Putin is looking for a dignified exit. He will not get one. 

3 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Putin  has finally realised that he can’t win the war with Ukraine. Russia economy is no shape to support his personal agenda. His associate in the White House has been dealt a harsh reality by Congress with pledges to continue support for Ukraine. Now with EU massive financial aid, Ukraine has the financial means to continue fighting Russia aggression. Ukraine military will continue to improve and prolong the war until Putin cry uncle or be removed internally. Putin is looking for a dignified exit. He will not get one. 

 

Your assessment of the situation differs from how Vlad's supporters see it.
 

There are only 4 main differences:
 

1. You believe European politicians are independent, while Vlad called them "подсвинки" the day before yesterday, which translates into English as "creatures in humiliating subordination to some pig." It's not hard to guess who Vlad considers the pig. Friends aren't called that, are they?
 

2. Based on 1., you believe Russia can't influence arms supplies, while Vlad believes it's enough to intimidate the "the pig". After that, all of the pig's European subordinates immediately carried out the pig's every order.
 

3. You believe there's only one front—in Ukraine. Vlad's supporters believe there's also the second front—the front used to intimidate those whom Vlad calls "the pig" in order to limit arms supplies to Ukraine.
 

4. You analyze the situation based on the speed of the troop advance. Throw a ball slightly upward in front of you. Its speed will be minimal. But after a moment, it will reach several meters per second. It's important to consider not only speed but also acceleration.

18 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

I'm surprised Putin waited as long as he did to take action as NATO crept closer and closer to his western border.

 

I suspect many people in Europe, the U.S. and even Canada are going to get very rich by this push to double up on their militaries and all the hardware that comes with it. Of course Trump, who doesn't like NATO, is pushing them hard to to do this because U.S. military establishment and his backers will be the biggest winners. Ironic since Putin is his pal. But this has always been about money and power.

The reason why he waited is well known: money.

 

He waited that oil prices went up enough to finance a war, that foreign reserves were high enough, and that gold reserves were high enough.

Same quarantee as till 22 Feb 22: laughing away any critics about preparing an invasion of Ukraine ?

Russia's wishes or Putin's dream?