Thread by @anders_aslund

Putin's meeting with officials on economic issues on March 16 records his greatest madness to date. Putin made a 15 pages speech, which would make Hitler look like a moderate until the bunker.
Conclusion: Putin is in the bunker.
en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

Putin devoted the first four pages to repeat all his lies about Ukraine: "our diplomatic efforts were in vain. We have been left with no peaceful alternative to settle the problems that developed through no fault of ours...we were forced to begin this special military operation."

"The operation is being carried out successfully, in strict conformity with the approved plan.
...encouraged by the United States and other Western countries, Ukraine was purposefully preparing for a scenario of force, a massacre and an ethnic cleansing in Donbass."

Putin proceeded to explicate how disgusting the Western sanctions were: "They are using economic, financial, trade and other sanctions against Russia as weapons, but these sanctions have backfired in Europe and in the United States where prices of gasoline, energy and food ...

...have shot up, and jobs in the industries associated with the Russian market have been cut. So, do not shift the blame on us and do not accuse our country of everything that goes wrong in your countries."

"...the problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elite of your respective countries, their mistakes, and short-sighted policies and ambitions...They are obsessed with their own self-serving interests and super profits"

"The illegitimate freezing of some of the currency reserves of the Bank of Russia marks the end of the reliability of so-called first-class assets....the US and the EU have defaulted on their obligations to Russia. Now everybody knows that financial reserves can simply be stolen"

& Russia is not at fault: "We must clearly understand that a new package of sanctions and restrictions would have been imposed on us no matter what. I want to emphasise this. For the West, our military operation in Ukraine is just a pretext for imposing more sanctions on us."

Putin appears desperate & helpless (he is): The sanctions bite: "the steps designed to make the lives of millions of people worse have all the attributes of an aggression, a war by economic, political, and informational means, and it is of a comprehensive and blatant nature."

Then, Putin gets really ugly (as he is): "of course, they will back the so-called fifth column, national traitors – those who make money here in our country but live over there, and “live” not in the geographical sense of the word but in their minds, in their servile mentality."

"I do not in the least condemn those who have villas in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot make do without foie gras, oysters or gender freedom as they call it. That is not the problem, not at all."

"The problem, again, is that many of these people are, essentially, over there in their minds and not here with our people and with Russia. In their opinion – in their opinion! – it is a sign of belonging to the superior caste, the superior race."

"People like this would sell their own mothers just to be allowed to sit on the entry bench of the superior caste. They want to be just like them and imitate them in everything. But they forget or just completely fail to see that even if this so-called superior caste needs them."

"The so-called collective West and its fifth column are accustomed to measuring everything and everyone by their own standards. They believe that everything is for sale and everything can be bought, and therefore they think we will break down and back off."
Good-bye, Putin!