In this frame grab provided by the Russian Television via the APTN, President Vladimir Putin, during a live feed, answers journalists' questions on the current situation around Ukraine at the Novo-Ogaryovo presidential residence outside Moscow, on Tuesday, March 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Russian Television via APTN)
Before most of the United States awoke on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was giving a press conference explaining what lay behind his strategy in Crimea and Ukraine.
Or rather, pretending to explain.
To the dozen or so journalists in the room, and the many more watching remotely, it seemed to be a series of half-truths, circular reasoning, and bravado. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was right, Julia Ioffe of the New Republic has observed, Putin has "lost his mind."
You can read a full transcript here, but for the key takeaways, read below:
I'm going to ignore a whole bunch of evidence to the contrary, and say there are no Russian troops on the ground:
“Look at former Soviet republics,” he said. “You can go to a store and buy a uniform. Were these Russian soldiers? No, they’re very well-trained self-defense forces.”
But Russia might use international force at some point:
“If I decide to use armed forces, it will be in line with international law.”
Euromaidan is still full of fascists and neo-Nazis: Vladimir Putin: "Our major concern is the orgy of nationalists, and extremists and anti-Semites on the streets of Kiev."
They were probably shooting themselves to make a point: Putin suggests that snipers who shot protestors in Kiev may have been "provocateurs from an oppositon party"
That said, I understand why they want Ukraine to change:
Putin: I agree with Maidan's demand for radical change in Ukraine
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) March 4, 2014Viktor Yanukovych is still president, but yes, I agree he is terrible: Translation of #Putin press conference: #Yanukovych is crook, has no political future, but I saved his life for humanitarian reasons. (1/2)
#Putin: and since #Yanukovych is still legitimate president, how could I ignore his plea to send troops to restore order in #Ukraine? (2/2)
— Lucian Kim (@Lucian_Kim) March 4, 2014Yulia Tymoshenko is sort of okay though: Putin notes that he's worked in the past with Yulia Tymoshenko. "If she wants to come to Moscow, she's welcome."
Ukraine is now a "new state," which means that all old treaties (such as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in which Russia agreed to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine) are void: Putin: Russia has not signed any agreements with this "new state" post revolution. (So previous Russia-Ukraine pacts may be null and void.)
This whole thing is America's fault anyway:
“They sit there across the pond as if in a lab running all kinds of experiments on the rats,” Putin said. “Why would they do it? No one can explain it.”
And America's done bad stuff too: "Let's remember what the US did in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya" says Putin wondering about American talk of legitimacy
Ukraine's oligarchs are terrible, even worse than Russia's: Putin crticizes oligarchs taking over eastern regions of #Ukraine. One of those oligarchs screwed Abramovich in business deal, Putin says.
Someone's cellphone rang and he kicked them out: Putin kicks out reporter whose cell phone went off. !
And he scolded a reporter:
Wow, so happy I'm not in the Kremlin pool- Putin giving a school lesson to Reuters journalist about definition of revolution
— Laura Mills (@lauraphylmills) March 4, 2014This isn't an interview anyway: Putin speaking now on Ukraine: http://t.co/TH7bbeISTO "Let's not have an interview, but a conversation"
Okay, that's pretty much it. What's the real takeaway from this though? Perhaps we should leave that to the Post's Anne Applebaum:
Putin's press conference reveals that we may have reached the weird moment when the dictator believes his own propaganda
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) March 4, 2014UPDATE: As was pointed out in the comments, this press conference was held on Tuesday, not Wednesday. We've updated to fix that error.
