Scott Ritter: Putin’s Inauguration Began Final Stage of Russia’s Purge of Malign Western Influence
13:27 GMT 07.05.2024 (Updated: 13:28 GMT 07.05.2024)
© Sputnik / Alexander Vilf
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Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia’s president on Tuesday, signaling the start of what former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector-turned political commentator Scott Ritter expects to become the final stage of Russia’s complete restoration of its self-identification and status as separate from and equal to the West.
In his speech at his inauguration ceremony, President Putin paid special emphasis to his responsibility as head of state “to protect Russia and serve our people,” and expressed Russia’s readiness for dialogue with the West, so long as the latter drops its efforts to restrain Russia’s development and apply pressure on the country.
“Dialogue is possible, including on issues of security and strategic stability. But not from a position of strength, without arrogance, conceit or personal exclusivity, but only on equal terms, respecting each other’s interests,” Putin said.
In the meantime, the president said, Russia will continue to work with its partners toward Eurasian integration “other sovereign development centers” to speed the formation of “a multipolar world order and an equal and indivisible security system.”
At home, Putin stressed, the foundations of Russian statehood include “interethnic harmony, the preservations of the traditions of all peoples living in Russia – a civilization unified by the Russian language and our multicultural culture.”
The task of the state going forward will be to “ensure reliable continuity in the development of the country for decades to come, to raise and educate young generations who will strengthen and develop the country,” he said.
Common Themes
Putin’s inauguration speech was very different from the televised address he gave when he first became acting president in 1999, but is nevertheless linked by one very important common theme, Scott Ritter told Sputnik.
“In his inauguration speech, Vladimir Putin made it clear that the security of Russia and the Russian people are his top priority. Why would he have to say this? Because as we speak, Russia finds itself under attack from many nations around the world – nations that seek the existential extermination of Russia, if not through violence, then through economic strangulation,” Ritter said.
By contrast, in 1999, Russia faced a threat of a different sort, according to the commentator.
Scott Ritter: Putin’s inauguration began final stage of Russia’s purge of malign Western influence
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“This time, it was different,” former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter told Sputnik, commenting on Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for a fifth term as Russia’s… pic.twitter.com/H0rTIBjkgT
“In 1999, Russia wasn’t facing attacks from without from foreign influence, but rather attacks from within," Ritter said, pointing to the deep infiltration of Western economic and political interests, and Western values, both into Russia's government, and among ordinary citizens. "This was a Russia that had lost touch with itself,” the observer said.
Over Putin’s tenure, Russia has gradually “purged” itself of these attitudes, Ritter said, with the conflict in Ukraine serving as a catalyst accelerating Russia’s transformation, forcing elites and ordinary citizens alike to reconsider who they are and what defines them.
Going forward, Ritter expects Putin’s new term in office to “redefine Russia in the final stages of this transformation that it has been making continuously since 1999, a Russia that will for once and all purge the poison of Western malign influence out of its system, and create a pure Russian notion of what Russia is.”
As for communication and potential cooperation with foreign power centers, it will be defined by Western readiness to respect Russian independence, the commentator said.
“Vladimir Putin made it clear in his speech that he is seeking good relations with the West. Russia’s not seeking to dominate anybody. But Russia wants to live in peaceful coexistence with its Western neighbors as an equal, as a nation defined not by Western values, but by Russian values,” Ritter summed up.
