Western Media Reflects on Russian President's SPIEF Speech

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07:27 GMT 08.06.2024 (Updated: 13:04 GMT 08.06.2024)

Svetlana Ekimenko

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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin took the stage at the SPIEF 2024 plenary session on Friday to dwell on Russia’s growing and diversifying economy, adapting to the new reality of a multipolar world, and delivered a warning to Western countries continuing to fan the flames of the Ukraine proxy conflict.

Western media outlets have widely picked up on the “confidence” that Russia’s president projected as he addressed a plenary session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

They also homed in on the Russian leader’s remarks regarding the use of nuclear weapons as the West continues to escalate the proxy conflict in Ukraine.

The BBC ran with a headline that said a “Confident Putin warns Europe is ‘defenseless.’”

The outlet quoted his comments aimed at European countries that have been propping up the Kiev regime, and that Russia has “many more [tactical nuclear weapons] than there are on the European continent, even if the United States brings theirs over.”

Reuters singled out the essence of Putin’s message, which indicated that Russia does not need to use nuclear weapons for victory in Ukraine. This is the Kremlin’s “strongest signal to date” that the conflict “will not escalate into a nuclear war,” Reuters stated.

The New York Times also trotted out the words “nuclear war” in the context that Putin said the combined arsenals of Europe and the US “would be no match for Russia’s in a nuclear confrontation.”

The publication also seized on Putin’s remarks that the scenario for such an “exceptional case” had not yet come, and that “there is no such need.»

DPA also sought to allay fears, interpreting Putin’s remarks as indicating that, “Russia not considering nuclear strike with West over Ukraine.”

At the same time, it cited the president’s comments that Russia’s nuclear doctrine is a «living instrument» that could change depending on circumstances.

CNBC threw the focus on trade and the de-dollarization trend spearheaded by BRICS. It cited Putin’s statement that “almost 40% of Russian trade turnover is now in rubles.”

The publication echoed the Russian president’s comments that Western sanctions had rendered the country more self-sufficient, with its economy “expected to grow faster than all advanced economies this year.”