Thread by @ElenaChernenko

To all politicians, experts and journos in US and EU who write that "Putin is trapped", "he needs a decent off ramp from the military campaign in Ukraine", etc., I strongly recommend watching the video of his conversation with young entrepreneurs and scientists today. 1/5

Here is the video I am talking about kremlin.ru/events/preside… 2/5

He is assertive, cool-headed and absolutely selfconfident. And sure of his mission which he finally stated in plain text: "Peter the Great led the Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he fought with Sweden, captured land… He didn't capture it, he returned it!" 3/5

Putin goes on: "When Peter the Great laid the new capital in St. Petersburg, none of the European countries recognized this territory as Russian, everyone recognized it as Swedens. But along with Finno-Ugric peoples Slavs lived ther from ancient times". 4/5

And the ending: "The same is true in the western direction, it concerns Narva, his first campaigns. Why did he care to do it? To returned (this land) and strengthen it – that's what he did... Apparently, it also our destiny to return and strengthen." 5/5