image source, Alexander NEMENOV/AFP
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Russia will not wage more wars after Ukraine if the country is treated with respect, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, calling claims that Moscow is planning to attack other European nations “nonsense.”
In a nearly four-and-a-half-hour marathon televised event, BBC journalist Steve Rosenberg asked the president whether there would be new “special military operations,” as Putin refers to the large-scale war in Ukraine.
“There will be no operation if they treat us with respect, if they respect our interests as we have always tried to respect theirs,” he said.
His comments coincided with a recent comment in which he said Russia had no plans to go to war but would be ready “immediately” if Europe wanted it.
He also added the condition: “If they don’t deceive us like they deceived us with NATO’s eastward expansion.”
Putin has long accused NATO of breaking a supposed 1990 promise made by the West to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev before the fall of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev later denied that such a claim had been made.
The “Hot Line” marathon brought together questions from the public and journalists from across Russia in one Moscow hall, with Putin sitting beneath a huge map of Russia that included occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea.
Russian state television said more than three million questions had been submitted.
Although the event was largely choreographed, some critical comments from the audience appeared on a large screen, including one who called the event a “circus,” another who lamented internet outages and one who pointed out the poor quality of tap water. Authorities attribute the mobile internet outages to Ukrainian drone attacks.
Putin also addressed Russia’s weakened economy: prices rose, growth fell and VAT was increased from 20% to 22% on January 1. A message to the President said: “Stop the crazy price gouging on everything!”
The Kremlin regularly uses the year-end event to highlight the economy’s resilience, and as Putin spoke, Russia’s central bank announced it would cut interest rates to 16%.
Ukraine, a recurring theme
image source, EPA
Foreign policy themes mingled with homeland considerations, praise for local businesses, seafood prices and the importance of caring for veterans.
But the topic of Ukraine’s nearly four-year all-out war was never far away and often loomed in the background of many questions.
Putin reiterated that he was “ready and willing” to end the war in Ukraine “peacefully,” but gave few signs of commitment.
He reiterated the principles he laid out in a speech in June 2024, when he called on Ukrainian forces to give up four regions partially occupied by Russia and for Kiev to abandon its efforts to join NATO.
Among Russia’s main demands is full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, including about 23% of the Donetsk region that Russia has failed to occupy.
Putin claimed that Russian forces were making progress along the front line in Ukraine and mocked Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the front line in Kupiansk last week when the Ukrainian leader refuted Russian claims that they had captured the city.
Putin also called for new elections in Ukraine as part of peace proposals put forward by US President Donald Trump as part of his efforts to end the conflict. At his press conference, Putin offered to stop bombing Ukraine during the vote.
Ukraine’s security service SBU said on Friday it had encountered for the first time a tanker that was part of Russia’s “ghost fleet” in the Mediterranean. Putin stated that the attack would not lead to the result sought by Kiev and would not disrupt Russian exports.
Most questions from the Russian media or public did not question Putin, but two Western correspondents were allowed to take part: Keir Simmons from the American broadcaster NBC and Steve Rosenberg from the BBC.
When Simmons asked whether Putin would feel responsible for the deaths of Ukrainians and Russians if he rejected Trump’s peace plan, the president praised the U.S. president’s “sincere” efforts to end the war but said it was the West, not Russia, that was blocking a deal.
“The ball is in the hands of our Western opponents,” he said, “primarily the leaders of the Kiev regime and, in this case, primarily their European patrons.”
Trump has declared that a peace deal is closer than ever, and despite Putin’s apparent refusal to concede, the US president expressed hope that “Ukraine will act quickly because Russia is there.”
A Ukrainian delegation is holding talks in Miami this Friday with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. German, French and British officials are also there, days after meeting American officials in Berlin.
Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev is also scheduled to arrive in Miami this weekend.
Putin told the BBC’s Russia editor: “We are ready to work with you, with the United Kingdom, with Europe in general and with the United States, but on an equal footing and with mutual respect.”
“We are ready to immediately cease hostilities as long as Russia’s security is guaranteed in the medium and long term, and we are ready to work with you.”
Putin accused the West of making Russia an enemy. “They are waging a war against us with the help of Ukrainian neo-Nazis,” he said, before repeating his usual tirade against Ukraine’s democratically elected leaders, overlooking their decision to launch a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
European intelligence agencies have warned that Russia is just years away from attacking NATO. The head of the Western defense alliance, Mark Rutte, said this month that Russia was already escalating a covert campaign and that the West must be prepared for war.
Although many of the questions were innocuous, including some from children, a reporter from Yakutia in northeastern Siberia pointed out that energy prices have risen tenfold in the past four years. Putin told him that his team would study alternative energy sources and “take Yakutia into account.”
Towards the end of the television marathon, Putin was asked a series of quick questions about his views on friendship, religion, home and love at first sight. He said he believed in love at first sight and then added that he was in love himself without revealing any further details.
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