Putin’s press conferences like this usually last for four to five hours. Putin uses this tradition to express his assessment of the situation in Russia in the past year and the direction of Russian policy for the coming time. This year is no exception.
During the press conference on December 19, the Russian people and the outside world witnessed Mr. Putin expressing satisfaction with the past year and optimism about the coming year. Mr. Putin confirmed that the inflation rate in Russia is still high and that Russia's economic growth rate in the past year, although not really high in absolute terms, was the highest in Europe. Russia is about to enter its fourth year of conflict with Ukraine and its fourth year of hostility with the US, EU, NATO and its allies, so Mr. Putin spent a lot of time mentioning the conflict and confrontation.
In this regard, the Russian people and the world outside Russia see Mr. Putin as very confident. Mr. Putin believes that Russia continues on the path to achieving the goals set for the conflict in Ukraine, but at the same time affirms his readiness to negotiate a peaceful political solution to this conflict without any preconditions. However, Mr. Putin said that he would only negotiate with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky if he was re-elected as President of Ukraine and based on the draft of the Istanbul Agreement between Russia and Ukraine in March 2022, which in essence still includes conditions and criteria that Ukraine and its allies do not want to accept. At the same time, Mr. Putin reiterated his warnings and deterrence to the US, EU, NATO and other allies of Ukraine about Russia's readiness to use all modern weapons, including nuclear weapons, to protect Russia's interests and territory.
In fact, all of the above are not new. But they create something special in Mr. Putin's practice this year, which is a message sent to Mr. Donald Trump when he is about to return to power in the US. Mr. Putin has been playing his cards face up with Mr. Trump since before Trump officially entered the game.
