A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that “new” and “very close regions” may become part of Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and the deputy head of Putin’s Security Council, made the comments during a congress of the United Russia party this week, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
“By the way, this experience [of occupying Ukrainian oblasts] may be in demand in the future if new, but very close regions appear within our country,” he said. “After all, this is possible.”
Six months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin signed papers to absorb Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions into Russia. It came after Kremlin-orchestrated referendums that the Ukrainain government and the West dismissed as illegitimate.
The U.S. and other Western allies have supplied Ukraine with aid to combat Russia’s invasion.
But it remains unclear how the almost three-year-old war will unfold next year. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in January, has pledged to end the war quickly and has thrown into question whether U.S. support for Ukraine will continue after he returns to the White House.
During Friday’s congress, Putin projected an image of strength as he insisted that Russia’s goals will be achieved.
“Russia is progressing, the economy is growing, which is done against the backdrop of unparalleled—in the full and direct meaning of the world—sanctions, gross interference and pressure from the ruling elites of some countries,” he said in his remarks, according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin’s website.
“However, no blackmailing or attempts to stand in our way will yield any result.”
He added that the “very name of the party shows the essence of our course, the image of the country that we are building, want to preserve and pass on to our descendants, the awareness that we are a unique, distinctive civilization, a multinational and multi-faith nation which, for all its internal diversity, has been and will be united. This is a crucial thing.
“Our opponents have tried to undermine this unity throughout all history, and now they are again following a scenario that has been tested out on others, trying to divide people, play the national or religious card. We will firmly suppress such provocations, we will respond to any threats and challenges, and we are ready to fight back, as they say, along the entire front.”
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