Thread by @SamRamani2

Putin's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky and foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin just made fiery speeches to rally Russians around the Ukraine war.

Their rhetoric provided an alarming window into Russia's totalitarian tilt. Some more details /1

The overarching theme was that Russia is facing an existential crisis

Medinsky said it bluntly: "Russia's very existence is at stake today"

This appeals to long-standing conspiracies about Western efforts to dismember Russia, which gained popularity in the late 1990s /2

In a striking parallel to Soviet-era allegations of "revisionism," deviations from the Kremlin's version of Russian history were described as acts of treason

Medinsky accused those who "vilify Russian history in works of culture" are "worse than traitors" /3

Themes from Putin's recent "scum and traitors" speech were also invoked, as warnings of fifth columns inside Russia abounded

Medinsky stated that he was unable to completely purge traitors from the Ministry of Culture. This opens the door for more crackdowns /4

Russia was also presented as a country that was under attack from hostile ideologies

Naryshkin warned that Russia was in a struggle against "totalitarian liberal regimes supported by the West"

Anti-war protests will no doubt be framed as unpatriotic stooges of the West /5

Naryshkin also justified military force as an acceptable means of preserving Russia's great power status

Naryshkin praised those who chose military service to prevent the West from consigning Russia to the "sidelines of world history" /6

The Kremlin is justifying the Ukraine war to its own people by linking it to patriotic values (conservatism and illiberalism) and imperial nostalgia, and creating a siege mentality

History shows that this will keep Putin's base intact and lead to a new wave of repression /7