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Lucian Kim Profile picture
@Lucian_Kim
Feb 21, 2022 • 12 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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Putin begins his fireside chat on recognition of Ukrainian separatist statelets by calling into question the legitimacy of modern Ukraine's borders.
Putin attacks Lenin and Communist Party of Soviet Union for destroying "historical Russia," says that despite "injustice, deception and plundering of Russia," Russians recognized and even helped newly independent states, including Ukraine, after collapse of USSR.
Putin: Elections in Ukraine serve as cover for redistribution of wealth among oligarchic clans; corruption has eaten away at Ukrainian statehood. Radicals took advantage of people's discontent in 2014.
Putin: Why are Ukrainians so poor? Because centuries-long economic cooperation with Russia has ended. Is that the "pro-European civilizational choice"?
Putin: Ukraine has surrendered its sovereignty to West; it's not even a Western protectorate but a colony with a puppet regime.
Putin: Ukraine may develop nuclear weapons based on Soviet technology and possibly help from abroad. We must react to danger of Ukraine acquiring WMD.
Putin: I'll tell you something I've never talked about publicly. During his visit to Moscow in 2000, I asked Bill Clinton how US would view Russia's NATO membership. I won't reveal the details, but the reaction was extremely restrained.
Putin: Fine, you don't want to see us as friend or ally, but why did you make an enemy out of us? It has nothing to do with our political regime or anything else. US simply doesn't need a big, independent country like Russia. That's the answer to all questions.
Putin: If US bases missiles in Ukraine, Tomahawk could reach Moscow in less than 35 minutes, ballistic missile in 7-8 minutes, hypersonic missile in 4-5 minutes. That's a dagger at our throat.
Accusing Kyiv of planning "blitzkrieg" and committing "genocide" against Russians in eastern Ukraine, Putin says he has no choice but to recognize independence of the very puppet statelets he created in 2014.
Putin ends speech with warning to Kyiv: We demand immediate end to fighting, otherwise all responsibility for continuation of bloodletting will be on your conscience (i.e. not mine).
"I would like to emphasize again that Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space."
Kremlin publishes official translation of Putin's casus belli speech. en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

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More from @Lucian_Kim

Lucian Kim Profile picture
Jul 5
A senior Ukrainian officer based in the Kharkiv region tells me the situation is “not critical but very tense everywhere.” The Russians have forced Ukraine to divert troops from Donetsk and are probing the Ukrainian lines. Russia is not in a position to make a major attack. 🧵
Ukraine has accepted it’s on the defensive and is stabilizing the line of contact, says the senior Ukrainian officer. The Russians are trying to establish a cordon sanitaire along the border. They launch assaults every day. There are many wounded on both sides.
The senior Ukrainian officer says Ukraine has 3 main problems: limited ammunition; no air support; not enough experienced personnel. Ukraine’s hopes lie in the Czech ammunition initiative; F-16s in the fall; Syrskyi’s efforts to bring more troops from the rear.
Read 16 tweets
Lucian Kim Profile picture
Jun 1
.@oleksiireznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister at the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, was in Washington today. He had some interesting things to say. Image
Reflecting on how far the West has come in supporting Ukraine, Reznikov recalled how he once was told that Stingers were impossible and now Ukraine is about to receive its first F-16s. “What is impossible today becomes possible tomorrow,” he said.
On the eve of the invasion, Reznikov learned that Russian spies were reporting to the Kremlin that 30% of Ukrainians would meet the Russians with flowers; 60% would be indifferent; 10% would resist. (Anybody talking to real Ukrainians would have known this to be absurd.)
Read 6 tweets
Lucian Kim Profile picture
May 27
Having just returned from Kyiv, I’d like to share some main takeaways from my meetings with political and military actors, people both supportive and critical of the Zelensky administration, as well as ordinary Ukrainians I met along the way. Image
Most remarkable is Ukrainians’ resilience and unity in the third year of a relentless, unprovoked attack by Russia. Although there is grumbling—Ukraine is a democracy—there is broad consensus for the need to keep fighting and awareness of the dire consequences of losing the war. Image
People in Kyiv take constant air raid alarms with sangfroid. They are confident in the air defenses around the capital. But one old acquaintance said she thinks a second Russian attack on Kyiv is possible—something she wouldn’t have said a year ago. Image
Read 15 tweets
Lucian Kim Profile picture
Mar 21
Just submitted my 375-page, peer-previewed book manuscript to @ColumbiaUP. It was a little harder to conceive than a real baby, but now it's just 9 months away from delivery. Image
This book is based on my almost 20 years reporting from Ukraine and Russia. It is an accessible but detailed history of Putin's transformation into an embittered tyrant who saw it as his historical mission to reconquer Ukraine.
I witnessed the events I discuss, from the Orange Revolution and Russia's invasion of Georgia to the arrival of Russian troops in Crimea and the Russian-backed insurgency in the Donbas. I watched as Russia, which I first visited in 1991, turn into a full-blown dictatorship.
Read 10 tweets
Lucian Kim Profile picture
Jan 29, 2023
New: Dalai Lama's representative in Russia, Telo Tulku, resigns as leader of Buddhists in Russia's Kalmykia leader after Russian officials brand him a "foreign agent" for opposing Putin's war and openly supporting Ukraine. khurul.ru/2023/01/28/obr…
Telo Tulku, also known as Erdne Ombadykow, was born to a Kalmyk immigrant family in US, told his parents at age 4 he wanted to become a monk and was educated in India. In 1991 he made his first trip to Kalmykia, a southern Russian region where Buddhism is the traditional faith.
Telo Tulku became the spiritual leader of Kalmykia's Buddhists in 1992. He has restored temples destroyed by Communists and organized the Dalai Lama's 2004 visit to Russia. khurul.ru/shadzhin-lama-…
Read 4 tweets
Lucian Kim Profile picture
Oct 19, 2022
My latest for @ForeignPolicy in 5 tweets:
On the surface, Ramzan Kadyrov sends the message that Chechnya, once Russia's most rebellious region, is now its most loyal. In fact, the outsize role Kadyrov has come to play only highlights Russia's fragility. foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/19/che…
That's not to say Russia's regions are about to break with Moscow. Putin's vaunted "power vertical" holds regional leaders on a tight leash by keeping them dependent on financial and political support.
But the more manpower and money Putin expends on the war in Ukraine, the looser his grip on Russia's far-flung provinces becomes. If Putin's empire-building project fails, Chechnya could once again become a source of instability for the Russian state.
Read 5 tweets

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