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.
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.