Russian President Vladimir Putin devoted his annual New Year’s address on Saturday to rallying the Russian people behind his troops fighting in Ukraine and pledging victory over Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” and a West supposedly intent on “destroying Russia.”
In a stern and combative recorded video message, broadcast on national television, Putin cast the war— which he calls a “special military operation”—as a near-existential fight for the future of Russia.
“This has been a year of difficult, necessary decisions, of crucial steps towards Russia’s full sovereignty and the powerful consolidation of our society,” Putin said.
Its soldiers, he said, were fighting for “our motherland, truth and justice … so that Russia’s security can be guaranteed.”…