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   A "totally deranged" speech by a dangerous madman   
   Ward Dossche - 2:292/854   
      
   Putin's "totally deranged" speech is worrying: You wonder if he would   
   dare to do such a thing. But look...   
      
   It was about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, about Satanism and sex surgery   
   on children. With a speech full of conspiracy theories, historic   
   pummeling and accusations, Vladimir Putin has endorsed the annexation   
   of four occupied Ukrainian territories and delivered a totally insane   
   speech. But one that makes the distance between Russia and the West   
   even greater.   
      
   He had only just started speaking when the Russian president called   
   for a minute's silence in the Kremlin's Saint George Hall for the   
   fallen "heroes of the Russian Spring". "They are heroes. Heroes of   
   Great Russia," he said. The minute lasted well 15 seconds.   
      
   "It is the will of millions of people," he said of the annexation of   
   Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya. That contrasts with the   
   fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the elite made a decision   
   "without asking the common people what they wanted," he said. A   
   historic mistake that is now being corrected. He lashed out at Kiev   
   and at "their real bosses in the West". "The masks have fallen off,"   
   it said. According to him, the West wants to make Russia a "colony".   
   He referred to the Opium Wars in China, to the "Indians in America",   
   and to the colonization of India. This concerns the "Anglo-Saxons",   
   the US, who, according to Putin, also occupied Germany and Japan and   
   single-handedly sabotaged Nord Stream 1 and 2.   
      
   But then he also jumped into the moral decay of the satanic West. "Do   
   we really want here in Russia to no longer speak of mom or dad but of   
   'parent number one', 'parent number two', 'number three'? Have they   
   gone completely mad there? He also briefly mentioned the atomic bombs   
   in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, calling them "a precedent".   
      
   It was a totally disturbed speech. What he says is in line with   
   earlier statements. But he went quite a step further. There's a lot   
   of weird stuff in it, like Japan and Germany being occupied by   
   America. You wonder if he would seriously dare to say such a thing,   
   but look. It is difficult to estimate whether he really believes   
   it himself.   
      
   What is clear is that it is not just some pointless drivel. Putin has   
   a purpose. He has visited all the arguments from cancel culture to   
   gender. This accumulation of cliches fits within a certain frame. What   
   Putin has been trying to do from the start is not just turn it into a   
   territorial conflict between Ukraine and Russia. He systematically   
   tries to escalate it into a world conflict where much more is at   
   stake. It's about the survival of Russia as he sees it, which is   
   threatened by an imaginary Western conspiracy. With Russia waging a   
   kind of holy war, as a defender of traditional values.   
   The speech is for both internal and external use. He wants to   
   propagate that civilizing conflict abroad. Internally, the intention   
   is to get everyone on the same page and to rally behind the flag as   
   one man now that murmurs have arisen about the mobilization. Whether   
   it works is another question. You are dealing with a society where a   
   lot of propaganda has already been spread. People who were already   
   convinced that Putin was right won't change their mind now. But I   
   don't think the others will now suddenly be won over to him. But   
   strange or not, it is all very worrying.   
      
   Especially because with the reference to nuclear weapons he seems   
   to be aiming for a nuclear intervention. The risk of nuclear   
   escalation against Europe or NATO is small, but the risk of using   
   nuclear weapons against Ukraine is increasing. Much depends on   
   how the Russian armed forces fare in the near future. If, through   
   mobilization, the Russians succeed in stabilizing the front until   
   winter, the risk is further off.   
      
   The water seems deeper than ever, especially now that Ukraine also   
   responded strongly to the annexation by requesting accelerated   
   accession to NATO. There's now even less room for negotiation than   
   there was before. Once you formally declare that you are annexing   
   territory, you are locking yourself in. If you undo that, it means   
   a very big defeat."   
      
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