Vladimir Putin signed Friday during a ceremony in the Kremlin the annexation of four regions of Ukraine that Moscow occupies totally or partially, calling on kyiv to “immediately cease hostilities”. The Russian president spoke very harshly to the West, “ready to do anything to preserve the neo-colonial system that allows it to parasitize and, in fact, plunder the whole world“, according to him.
Nicolas Gosset was invited to RTL INFO 19H. Interviewed by Luc Gilson, the researcher at the Royal Higher Institute for Defense and specialist in Russia shared his analysis of the situation and the words of Vladimir Putin.
Luc Gilson: A word first about this speech. It is worrying for you? Surrealist?
Nicholas Gosset: It is in line with what Vladimir Putin has provided to Russian public opinion and to the world since the beginning of this war, and even before. It accentuates a number of points about anti-Western revanchism, the West’s proclaimed responsibility for what is obviously an act of its own volition to invade the neighboring country. What seems to me interesting to note is to what extent this staging takes up exactly the codes that followed the annexation of Crimea in 2014. A bit the same unfolding with the leaders of the self-proclaimed republics who are confined to a corner of this huge room, without a voice in the chapter on the accession of their entity to the Russian Federation. And at the same time, the repetition of grievances particularly sustained against Westerners. With a rather strange emphasis on the colonial dimension, while Russia’s war in Ukraine particularly takes a form that appears colonial, with the annexation of territories. So we are in full dystopia, in full dark fiction of the Kremlin where he continues on his momentum.
Luc Gilson: Now that Russia has officially annexed these four regions, could Vladimir Putin, as he had already said, use nuclear weapons to defend them?
Nicholas Gosset: In any case, this is the message he wants to send. So the idea is from the moment when for Russia it is part of its territory, well Russia is legitimate in its right to use all the means at its disposal, including nuclear power, to protect his territory
Luc Gilson: Could he really go that far?
Nicholas Gosset: I think that we are first in the declaratory, but indeed, there is a part of risk which is opened by the nature of the decision-making field of the Kremlin, by the Russian nuclear doctrine on the tactical nuclear which is rather vague. It is above all a question of frightening, of repelling the Ukrainians. And then it’s a speech that is aimed at Russian public opinion. It is a question of saying to the Russians “Look, our model works, some want to join us”, not like those Ukrainians whom he reproaches for having made the choice of democracy.
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Luc Gilson: The Russian population is manipulated, indoctrinated by the Kremlin?
Nicholas Gosset: The information field is completely looped. There is indeed this propaganda machine working at full capacity, but not since the invasion of Ukraine. There, it was mentioned the opening of this park in 2015 (Editor’s note: a military amusement park in Russia), this is something that dates back at least a good decade. (It is) an educational, military and patriotic system. So we see to what extent the education, the indoctrination of youth is part of this enterprise of rewriting history, of instrumentalizing history, of memory, with the aim of creating an integral confusion between the patriotism and the militarization of society. With a form of indoctrination of families, young people, with the aim, as we can see, of making them good soldiers sent to the front in a mobilization process. So don’t be fooled. Society is not. There is indeed a great penetration of propaganda, but we also see that more and more the shock of the reality of war in society leads to social and political tensions, to very significant disputes. First in the peripheral republics most affected by the mobilization, but it is very striking to see this increase in tensions.