“The Crimean syndrome began to crumble”: Venediktov “revealed” the reason for Putin’s ultimatums to NATO

Aleksey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy radio station, believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to solve problems with the collapsed confrontation with NATO, but, according to the journalist, the Russian leader’s ultimatum demands to the North Atlantic Alliance (including the non-expansion of the organization to the east from involving Ukraine) are designed for the domestic Russian audience. According to Dialog.UA, Venediktov shared his reasoning on the air of his radio station on January 15.

“All this hysteria with NATO now is a matter of internal mobilization of the Russian population. This is a mobilization program: Russia is surrounded by enemies. Rocket launchers are moving towards our borders, flight time is 5 minutes. This is for future elections,” Venediktov said.

In his opinion, the “Crimean syndrome” after the annexation of the peninsula to Russia in 2014 “began to crumble.” “For the next elections (elections of the President of the Russian Federation in 2024 – ed.) or for the next mutation of the Russian state, if these are not elections, we need to rally the people. Otherwise, the people have become loose… People live worse, the covid has brought them into a state of irritation, we see this in the electorate — all this is connected. So, you need to rally them around the goal, ”suggests the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy.

Recall that in November-December last year, the world media was filled with the topic of the alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that should follow. According to the authors and experts of these publications, a sign of “invasion” is the concentration of Russian military equipment in the regions bordering Ukraine. Among the likely sanctions are both the shutdown of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as well as restrictions against Russian energy companies, and the shutdown of the SWIFT system of “fast” financial settlements.

Meanwhile, on January 14, Bloomberg indicated that Washington was forced to put pressure on European allies and partners, because, despite numerous negotiations, the parties have not yet been able to agree on specific sanctions measures against Russia in the event of its invasion of Ukraine.

On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assured at a press conference that Russia is ready for any Western sanctions and developments in the economy.