Signing ceremony of the treaties of accession Putin's speech 9/30/2022 Translated by Georg Stien & Orage

Signing of the treaties on accession of Donetsk, Luhansk,
Zaporizhzhya and Kherson oblasts to Russia

The signing ceremony of the treaties of accession to Russia of the
Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, the
Zaporozhye region and the Kherson region, as well as the formation of
new constituent entities of the Russian Federation, was held in St.
George's Hall of the Kremlin.

Vladimir Putin:
Dear Russian citizens, citizens of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's
Republics, residents of the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions,
deputies of the State Duma, senators of the Russian Federation!
Referendums were held in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's
Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Their results have been
summarized, the results are known. The people have made their
choice, an unequivocal choice.

Today we sign the treaties on admission to Russia of the Donetsk
People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, the Zaporozhye
region and the Kherson region. I am sure that the Federal Assembly
will support the constitutional laws on the admission and formation of
four new regions, four new constituent entities of the Russian
Federation, because this is the will of millions of people.
(Applause.)

And this is their right, of course, their inalienable right which is
enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter, which speaks directly about
the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
I repeat: it is an inalienable right of the people, it is based on historical
unity, in the name of which generations of our ancestors have won,
those who from the origins of Ancient Russia over the centuries have
built and defended Russia. Here, in Novorossia, Rumyantsev, Suvorov
and Ushakov fought, and Catherine II and Potemkin founded new
cities. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought here, many
giving their live, during the Great Patriotic War.

We will always remember the heroes of the "Russian Spring", those
who did not withstand the neo-Nazi coup in Ukraine in 2014, all those
who died for the right to speak their native language, to preserve their
culture, traditions and faith and for the right to live. These are the
warriors of the Donbas, the martyrs of the "Odessa Khatyn" and the
victims of inhuman terrorist attacks of the Kiev regime. They are
volunteers and militiamen, they are civilians, children, women, the
elderly, Russians, Ukrainians, people of the most diverse nationalities.
Like the real people's leader of Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko,
like the combat commanders Arsen Pavlov and Vladimir Zhoga, Olga
Kochura and Alexey Mozgovoy, like the prosecutor of the Luhansk
Republic, Sergey Gorenko. Like the paratrooper Nurmagomed
Hajimagomedov and all our soldiers and officers who died the death
of the brave during a special military operation. They are heroes.
(Applause.) Heroes of Great Russia. And I ask you for a minute of
silence in their memory.
(Moment of silence.)

Behind the choice of millions of people in the Donetsk and Luhansk
People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions is our common
destiny and a thousand-year history. People have passed on this
spiritual bond to their children and grandchildren. Despite all the
trials, they have maintained their love for Russia over the years. And
no one can destroy this feeling in us. That is why the older
generations, those born after the tragedy of the collapse of the Soviet
Union, voted for our unity, for our common future.

In 1991, at the Belovezhskaya Pushcha, without asking for the will of
an ordinary citizen, the representatives of the then party elites made a
decision on the disintegration of the USSR, and people found
themselves overnight cut off from their Motherland. This tore and
divided our national unity alive, and it became a national catastrophe.
Just as after the revolution the borders of the Soviet republics were
sliced up behind the scenes, the last leaders of the Soviet Union tore
our great country apart despite the direct will of the majority in a
referendum in 1991, simply giving nations priority over fact.
I recognize that they didn't even fully understand what they were
doing and the consequences they would inevitably have in the end.
But that no longer matters. The Soviet Union no longer exists, you
can't bring back the past. And Russia today doesn't need it, we don't
aspire to it. But there is nothing stronger than the determination of
millions of people who by their culture, faith, traditions and language
consider themselves part of Russia, whose ancestors lived for
centuries in a single state. There is nothing stronger than the
determination of these people to return to their true historical
homeland.

For eight long years, the inhabitants of Donbas have been subjected to
genocide, shelling and blockade, while in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia
they have criminally tried to instill hatred of Russia, of everything
Russian. Now, during the referendums, the Kiev regime threatened
schoolteachers and women working in the election commissions with
reprisals, intimidating millions of people who had come to express
their will. But the intact people of Donbas, Zaporozhye and Kherson
have spoken.

I want the Kiev authorities and their real masters in the West to listen
to me and I want everyone to remember this: the people living in
Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye become our citizens
forever. (Applause.)

We call on the regime in Kiev to immediately cease fire, all hostilities,
the war it unleashed in 2014, and return to the negotiating table. We
are ready for it, it has been said many times. But the choice of the
people of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson will not be
disputed, it has been made, Russia will not betray them. (Applause.)
And the current authorities in Kiev must treat this free expression of
the people's will with respect, and not otherwise. Only this can be the
way to peace.

We will defend our land with all the forces and means at our disposal
and we will do everything possible to ensure a safe life for our people.
This is the great mission of liberation of our people.
We will rebuild the destroyed cities and villages, housing, schools,
hospitals, theaters and museums, restore and develop industrial
enterprises, factories, infrastructure, social and pension systems,
health care and education.

Of course, we will work to improve security. Together we will make
sure that the citizens of the new regions feel the support of all the
people of Russia, of the whole country, of all the republics, of all the
districts and regions of our great Motherland. (Applause.)

Dear friends, colleagues
Today I would like to address the soldiers and officers participating in
the special military operation, the soldiers of Donbas and
Novorossiya, those who after the decree of partial mobilization join
the Armed Forces, fulfilling their patriotic duty, who come themselves
to the military registration and enlistment offices at the call of their
hearts. I would like to address their parents, wives and children and
tell them what our people are fighting for, what enemy we are up
against, who is throwing the world into new wars and crises, making
his bloody profit out of this tragedy.

Our compatriots, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine – a native part of
our united nation – have seen with their own eyes what the ruling
circles of the so-called West are preparing for all mankind. Here, in
fact, they simply threw off their masks and showed their true face.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West decided that the
world, all of us, would have to put up with its dictates forever. In
1991, the West thought that Russia would never recover from the blow
it had suffered and would collapse on its own. It almost did: we
remember the 1990s, the terrible 1990s, hungry, cold and hopeless.
But Russia resisted, revived, grew stronger and reclaimed its rightful
place in the world.

At the same time, the West has sought and continues to seek a new
opportunity to strike at us, to weaken and disintegrate Russia, as they
have always dreamed of doing, to fragment our state, to pit our people
against each other, to condemn them to poverty and extinction. They
simply do not understand how there can be peace on the soil of a
country so big, so vast, with its territory, its natural wealth, its
resources, its people, which is not capable and will never be capable
of living under the rule of others.

The West is willing to do anything to preserve this neo-colonial
system that allows it to parasitize, in essence to steal, from the world
at the expense of the power of the dollar and technological dictate, to
collect real tribute from humanity, to extract the main source of
unearned wealth, the hegemonic rent. The preservation of this rent is
their key, a genuine and absolutely self-interested motive. That is why
they are interested in total de-sovereignization. Hence their aggression
against independent states, traditional values and cultures, attempts to
undermine international efforts and integration processes, new world
currencies and centers of technological development, which are
beyond their control. For them it is essential that all countries
renounce their sovereignty in favor of the United States.

The ruling circles of some countries voluntarily agree to do so,
voluntarily agree to become vassals; others are bribed or intimidated.
And if they fail, they destroy entire countries, leaving behind
humanitarian disasters, catastrophes, ruins, millions of ruined and
shattered human fortunes, terrorist enclaves, social disaster zones,
protectorates, colonies and semi-colonies. They don't care, as long as
they get their profits.

I would like to insist once again: greed and the intention to maintain
their unlimited power is the real reason for the hybrid war that the
"collective West" is waging against Russia. They do not want us to be
free, they want to see us as a colony. They don't want equal
cooperation, they want theft. They want to see us not as a free society,
but as a mob of soulless slaves.

They see our thought and our philosophy as a direct threat to them,
and that is why they attack our philosophers. Our culture and our art
are a threat to them, so they try to ban them. Our development and
prosperity is also a threat to them: competition is increasing. They
don't need Russia at all, it is us who need it. (Applause.)
I would like to remind you that the pretensions of world domination
have been repeatedly crushed by the courage and steadfastness of our
people in the past. Russia will always be Russia. We will continue to
defend our values and our Motherland.

The West counts on impunity, on getting away with everything.
Indeed, it has gotten away with everything so far. Strategic security
arrangements have been thrown in the trash; agreements reached at the
highest political level have been declared a farce; firm promises not to
expand NATO eastward, once believed by our former leaders, have
become a dirty farce; missile defense and intermediate-range missile
treaties have been unilaterally scrapped on implausible pretexts.
All we hear from all sides is that the West defends a rules-based order.
Where did these rules come from? Who has seen them? Who has
negotiated them? Look, this is nonsense, total deception, double or
triple standards! They are simply designed for fools.
Russia is a great millennial power, a country of civilization, and it's
not going to live by these rigged, phony rules. (Applause.)

It was the so-called West that trampled on the principle of inviolability
of borders, and now decides at will who is entitled to selfdetermination
and who is not, who is not worthy of it. It is not clear
why they decide it, nor who has given them that right. It is not even
clear to themselves.

That's why they have wild anger at the choice of the people in Crimea,
Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson. This West
has no moral right to evaluate it or even talk about the freedom of
democracy. They have not had it and have never exercised it.
Western elites not only deny national sovereignty and international
law. Their hegemony is clearly totalitarian, despotic and apartheid in
character. They impudently divide the world into their vassals, the socalled
civilized countries and all others who, according to the designs
of today's Western racists, should be added to the list of barbarians and
savages. The false labels – "rogue country", "authoritarian regime" –
are already in place, they are branding entire nations and states, and
this is nothing new. There is nothing new about it: Western elites have
remained as they were: colonialist. They discriminate, they divide
peoples into first and other classes.

We have never and will never accept this political nationalism and
racism. And what, if not racism, is Russophobia, which is now
spreading all over the world? What, if not racism, is the West's
overriding conviction that its civilization, its neoliberal culture, is the
unquestionable model for the whole world? "Whoever is not with us is
against us." It even sounds strange.

The Western elites even project repentance for their own historical
crimes onto everyone else, demanding that the citizens of their
countries and other nations apologize for what they had nothing to do
with, for example, for the period of colonial conquests.
It is worth reminding the West that it began its colonial policy in the
Middle Ages, followed by the world slave trade, the genocide of
Indian tribes in America, the plundering of India, Africa, the wars of
England and France against China, which forced it to open its ports to
the opium trade. What they were doing was hooking whole peoples on
drugs, deliberately exterminating whole ethnic groups for land and
resources, and establishing a real hunt of people like they were beasts.
This is against human nature itself, against truth, freedom and justice.
And we... we are proud that in the 20th century it was our country that
led the anti-colonial movement, which gave many peoples of the
world the opportunity to develop, to reduce poverty and inequality, to
overcome hunger and disease.

I would like to emphasize that one of the reasons for the centuries-old
Russophobia and undisguised anger of these Western elites towards
Russia is precisely because we did not allow ourselves to be robbed
during the colonial conquests and forced the Europeans to trade for
mutual benefit. This was achieved by creating in Russia a strong
centralized state, which developed strengthened by the great moral
values of Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, and by Russian
culture and speech, which are open to all.

It is known that plans for intervention in Russia were made repeatedly,
they tried to use both, the time of the troubles of the early 17th
century, and the period of turmoil after 1917 – and failed. After all, the
West managed to get hold of Russia's wealth at the end of the 20th
century, when the state was destroyed. They called us friends and
partners, but in reality we were treated like a colony: trillions of
dollars were siphoned out of the country under a variety of schemes.
We all remember everything, we have forgotten nothing.
And these days, the people of Donetsk and Luhansk, of Kherson and
Zaporozhye spoke out to restore our historical unity. Thank you.
(Applause.)

Western countries have been saying for centuries that they bring
freedom and democracy to other nations. It is exactly the opposite:
instead of democracy, it is oppression and exploitation; instead of
freedom, it is slavery and violence. The entire unipolar world order is
inherently undemocratic and unfree, a lie and hypocrisy from front to
back.

The United States is the only country in the world to have used
nuclear weapons twice, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. By the way, they set a precedent.
I also remind you that the US, together with the British, turned
Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne and many other German cities into ruins
during WWII without any military necessity. And it was done
demonstratively, without, I repeat, military necessity. There was only
one purpose: as in the case of the nuclear bombings in Japan, to
intimidate our country and the whole world.
The United States left a terrible mark on the peoples of Korea and
Vietnam with its barbaric "carpet bombing," unsing napalm and
chemical weapons.

They continue to occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and
other countries and at the same time cynically call them equal allies. I
wonder what kind of alliance this is. The whole world knows that the
leaders of these countries are being spied on and their leaders are
being bugged not only in their offices but also in their homes. It is a
real shame. Shame on those who do it, and shame on those who, like
slaves, swallow this rudeness silently and without complaint.
They qualify as noble medical research the orders given with rude and
insulting shouts to their vassals of Euro-Atlantic solidarity, to develop
biological weapons and conduct experiments on living people,
including in Ukraine.

It is their destructive policies, wars and plunder that have caused the
huge increase in migration flows today. Millions of people endure
deprivation and abuse and die by the thousands trying to reach
Europe.

Bread is exported from Ukraine, where does it go under the pretext of
"ensuring food security for the world's poorest countries"? Where does
it go? It all goes to European countries. From there, only five percent
went to the world's poorest countries. Again, another blatant hoax and
deception.

The U.S. elite is essentially using the tragedy of these people to
weaken its rivals, to destroy nation states. This also applies to Europe,
to the identity of France, Italy, Spain and other countries with
centuries of history.

Washington demands more and more sanctions against Russia, and
most European politicians obediently acquiesce. They clearly
understand that the United States, by pushing for the EU to completely
cut off Russia's energy and other resources, is practically
deindustrializing Europe and taking over the European market; they
understand it all, these European elites, they understand it all, but they
prefer to serve the interests of others. This is no longer a trifle, but a
direct betrayal of their peoples, may God protect them.
But sanctions are not enough for the Anglo-Saxons, they have moved
on to sabotage – unbelievably, but it is a fact – by organizing
explosions on the international Nord Stream gas pipelines, which run
along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they have really started to destroy
the European energy infrastructure. It is obvious to everyone who
benefits from this. Whoever benefits from it has done so, of course.
U.S. dictate is based on brute force, on the law of the fist. Sometimes
it is well wrapped, sometimes ungloved, but the essence is the same:
the power of the fist. Hence the deployment and maintenance of
hundreds of military bases in all corners of the world, the expansion of
NATO and attempts to form new military alliances such as AUKUS
and the like. A politico-military nexus between Washington, Seoul and
Tokyo is also actively sought. All states that possess or aspire to
possess genuine strategic sovereignty and are capable of challenging
Western hegemony are automatically classified as enemies.

On these principles are built the military doctrines of the United States
and NATO, which call for nothing less than total domination. Western
elites present their neocolonial plans in the same hypocritical manner,
even pretending to be peaceful, talking about some kind of
containment, and such a cunning word migrates from one strategy to
another, but, in fact, it means only one thing: undermining any center
of sovereign development.

We have already heard about containment from Russia, China and
Iran. I think other countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the
Middle East, as well as current U.S. partners and allies, are next. We
know that when something is not to their liking, they also impose
sanctions against allies: one against one bank, one against another;
one against one company, one against another. It is a practice, and it
will expand. Their target is the whole world, including our closest
neighbors, the CIS countries.

At the same time, it is clear that the West is indulging its desires.
Thus, by initiating a blitzkrieg of sanctions against Russia, they
believed that they would once again have the whole world at their
command. However, it turns out that such a bright prospect does not
excite everyone except completely masochistic politicians and
admirers of other unconventional forms of international relations.
Most states however refuse to follow Russia and opt for the sensible
path of cooperation.

It is clear that the West did not expect such a challenge from them.
They are simply used to acting according to a scheme, to taking
everything by blatant force, blackmail, bribery and intimidation, and
are convinced that these methods will always work, as if they have
become stultified and stuck in the past.
This self-confidence is a direct consequence not only of the notorious
concept of exceptionalism itself – though it is certainly surprisingly
simple – but also of the real hunger for information in the West. The
truth has been drowned in an ocean of myths, illusions and
falsifications, using prohibitive propaganda, lying like Goebbels. The
more unbelievable the lie, the faster people will believe it; that's how
they work, according to this principle.

But you can't feed people with printed dollars and euros. You can't
feed them with those pieces of paper, and the virtual and inflated
capitalization of Western social networks can't warm their homes.
Related to everything else, what I just said is no less important: you
can't feed anyone with paper, you need food, and these inflated
capitalizations can't heat anyone either, you need energy.
That is why European politicians have to convince their fellow
citizens to eat less, bathe less often and dress warmer at home. And
those who start asking fair questions – "why is it so?" – immediately
are declared enemies, extremists and radicals. They shift the blame to
Russia, saying: that is the source of all your problems. They lie again.
What do I want to point out? There are many reasons to believe that
the Western elites are not going to look for constructive solutions to
the world food and energy crisis, which arose because of them,
precisely because of their long-standing policy, long before our special
military operation in Ukraine, in Donbas. They do not intend to solve
the problems of injustice and inequality. There is a fear that they are
ready to use other known recipes.

At this point it is worth to remember that the West emerged from the
contradictions of the early 20th century thanks to World War I. The
reward of World War II enabled the United States to finally overcome
the consequences of the Great Depression and become the world's
largest economy, imposing on the planet the power of the dollar as the
world's reserve currency. The West largely overcame the crisis of the
1980s – the crisis became severe in the 1980s – by appropriating the
legacy and resources of the Soviet Union, which eventually collapsed
and fell. That is a fact.

Now, to get out of the tangle of contradictions, they need, by all
means, to bend Russia and other states that choose the sovereign path
of development to plunder even more of other people's wealth and
with it mend and plug their holes. If this does not happen, I do not rule
out that they will try to bring the system to collapse, which can be
blamed for everything, or, God forbid, that they will decide to use the
well-known formula "war will liquidate everything".

Russia understands its responsibility to the international community
and will do everything possible to bring these hotheads to their senses.
It is clear that the current neocolonial model is doomed in the long
run. But moreover, its real owners will cling to it until the end. They
simply have nothing to offer to the world except the continuation of
the same system of plunder and blackmail.
In essence, they spit on the natural right of billions of people, the
majority of humanity, to freedom and justice, to determine their own
future. They have now moved to a radical denial of morality, religion
and family.

Let us answer some very simple questions for ourselves. Now I would
like to go back to what I have said and address all Russian citizens,
not only colleagues in the room, but all Russian citizens: do we really
want to have a "number one", a "number two" or a "number three"
instead of a mom and dad? Do we want children in our schools,
starting from elementary school, to be exposed to perversions that lead
to degradation and extinction? Do we want them to be taught that
there are other genders besides male and female and to be offered sex
reassignment surgery? Is this what we want for our country and our
children? All this is unacceptable to us, we have our own future.
I repeat, the dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all
societies, including the people of Western countries themselves. It is a
challenge for all. This total negation of man, the subversion of faith
and traditional values, the suppression of freedom takes on the
characteristics of "religion in reverse": pure and simple Satanism. In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, denouncing the false prophets,
said: "By their fruits you will know them. And these poisonous fruits
are already obvious to people, not only in our country, but in all
countries, including many people in the West.

The world has entered a period of revolutionary transformation, it is
fundamental. New centers of development are forming, representing
the majority – the majority! – of the world community and are ready
not only to declare their interests, but also to defend them, and in
multipolarity they see an opportunity to strengthen their sovereignty,
and thus gain real freedom, a historical perspective, their right to
independent, creative and original development, to a harmonious
process.

All over the world, even in Europe and the United States, as I said, we
have many like-minded people, and we feel, we see their support. In
several countries and societies a liberation and anti-colonial
movement against unipolar hegemony is developing. Its subjectivity
will only increase. It is this force that will determine the future
geopolitical reality.

Dear friends!
Today we are fighting for a just and free way, first of all for us, for
Russia, so that dictatorship, despotism, will forever remain in the past.
I am convinced that countries and peoples understand that a policy
built on the exclusivity of anyone, on the suppression of other cultures
and peoples is inherently criminal, that we must turn this shameful
page. The rupture of Western hegemony, which has begun, is
irreversible. And I repeat: it will not be the same as before.
The battlefield to which destiny and history have called us is the
battlefield for our people, for the great historic Russia. (Applause) For
a great historic Russia, for future generations, for our children,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We must protect them from
enslavement, from monstrous experiments aimed at paralyzing their
minds and souls.

Today we fight so that no one can think that Russia, our people, our
language, our culture, can be erased from history. Today we need the
consolidation of the whole society, and that consolidation can only be
based on sovereignty, freedom, creation and justice. Our values are
humanity, mercy and compassion.
And I would like to conclude with the words of the true patriot Ivan
Aleksandrovich Ilyin:

"If I consider Russia my Fatherland, it means that I love, contemplate
and think in Russian, sing and speak in Russian; that I believe in the
spiritual powers of the Russian people. Their spirit is my spirit; their
destiny is my destiny; their suffering is my pain; their flourishing is
my joy."

Behind these words lies a great spiritual decision that has been
followed by many generations of our ancestors for more than a
thousand years of Russian statehood. Today the citizens of the
Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and residents of the
Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have made a choice. They have
made a decision to stand with their people, to stand with their
Homeland, to live their destiny and win together with it.
The truth stands behind us, Russia stands behind us!

(Applause.)