In the gold-decorated St. George’s Hall of the Kremlin Palace, Vladimir Putin signed treaties that, according to him, the people in eastern Ukraine had been longing for for years, even decades: with the stroke of a pen he decreed the accession of the occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Cherson to the Russian Union Federation. Regardless of the obviously falsified referendums in these areas, regardless of the lack of control over these areas, regardless of the supreme Russian legislation itself. Because this provides for the possibility of annexing foreign territories only with the consent of the state power to which these territories are subject. In the case of the Ukrainian territories, it would be the government in Kyiv that would have to agree to the annexation.
After an hour-long show in the Kremlin, during which Putin gave the assembled deputies and senators an idiosyncratic history lesson, the show began outside his gates. On Red Square, the state power herded together a crowd of spectators: employees of state organizations, students from state universities and paid extras who waved Russian flags for 600 to 900 rubles and sang songs of praise for the annexation.
They were taken to the center of the Russian city in their own buses. Students were even brought to Moscow from other towns. For their participation in the Putin-Zyov they were promised the recognition of difficult courses, extra credits or lecture-free days. The video shows the accumulation of buses on central Moscow streets, which had been closed for the event.
The appearance of Vladimir Putin
It was a “terrific concert”, enthused the Russian state television afterwards. The highlight of the production: late in the evening, Vladimir Putin presented himself to the audience. “Russia is not only opening the doors of its homeland to our brothers and sisters. Russia is opening its heart. Welcome home,” said the Kremlin boss after delivering a short version of what he had previously said in the Georgssaal. After a brief, awkward pause, the spectators who had been ordered chanted “Russia” in unison.
Next to Putin on the stage, the four representatives of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Cherson regions, who had previously signed the annexation treaties, stood motionless. A major mistake made by the show’s directors in the Kremlin was corrected. The largest representative of the Ukrainian regions was no longer placed next to Putin. Pays attention to the fact that its small size does not catch the eye.