(Moscow, December 6, 2024)

With Russian subtitles:

Key theses

• Officially, we are not at war with the United States. Some people call what is happening in Ukraine a hybrid war. That’s what I’d call it too. Obviously, the Ukrainians would not have been able to do what they are doing with modern long-range weapons without the direct involvement of American military personnel.

• We don’t want to make the situation worse. But since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are being used in Russia, we are sending signals.

We hope that the last one (a couple of weeks ago) from the new Oreshnik system was taken seriously.

• In his last statement, President Vladimir Putin made it clear that we are ready for any eventuality. We prefer a peaceful negotiated settlement based on respect for Russia’s legitimate security interests, respect for the Russian people living in Ukraine, their basic rights, linguistic and religious rights, destroyed by a number of laws adopted by the Ukrainian parliament.

• If you want to respect the UN Charter, you must respect it in its entirety. Let me remind you that this document, among other things, states that all countries must respect the equality of States and the right of nations to self-determination.

• People in the East and South of Ukraine, in Donbas and Novorossiya do not consider the Zelensky regime to be the one who represents their interests. How can they represent them when their culture, language, traditions, religion are all forbidden.

• Take any conflict, the United States, Great Britain, and the European Union will intervene, saying that human rights have been grossly violated <…>. In Ukraine, they never talk about “human rights” because they see that these very human rights for the Russian and Russian-speaking population are completely prohibited by law.

Westerners are fighting to maintain their hegemony in the world, in any country, region, and on any continent. We are fighting for our legitimate security interests. <…> They are fighting for a regime that is ready to sell or give all natural and human resources to the West. We are fighting for the people living on these lands, whose ancestors have been developing them for centuries, building cities and factories.

Historically, the United States has sought to create some kind of problem in foreign policy, and then see if they can “catch a fish in muddy waters”: the Iraqi aggression, the Libyan “adventure” or, in fact, the destruction of the state, flight from Afghanistan.

• In eastern Syria, the Americans are “feeding” some Kurdish separatists using profits from the sale of oil and grain, the resources they use.

• The North Atlantic Alliance, at least under the Biden Administration, is looking at the entire Eurasian continent. These “Indo-Pacific strategies,” the South China and East China Seas are already on the NATO “agenda.”

The Americans say they cannot allow Russia to win in Ukraine because it would undermine the “rules-based world order,” which is American domination.

As for the United States, we don’t want war with anyone. <…>

Talking about a limited exchange of nuclear strikes is an invitation to a catastrophe that we do not want.

@MID_Russia