What Putin’s state of the nation address really tells us about where his premiership is heading

The address showed a president settling in to what is probably his last term, and focusing – as he himself said at the outset – on domestic concerns

Mary Dejevsky
Thursday 21 February 2019 18:19 GMT
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Putin threatens to target US with new weapons if it deploys missiles to Europe

Maybe it is because the west’s great global bogeyman has been pretty quiet recently that his state of the nation address this week seemed to come somewhat out of the blue.

Vladimir Putin’s apparent reticence over the winter could, of course, simply reflect the all-consuming preoccupation with Brexit in the UK, and the extent to which other countries – France with its gilets jaunes, “new” Europe with its constitutional quarrels, Donald Trump with his wall and a new congress – have been otherwise engaged.

But I don’t think the impression of a more quiescent Putin is completely false. In the international context, at least – and not just from the currently exceptional perspective of London – Russia’s president has been unusually absent from the headlines.

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