Putin slams Russians who back West as 'traitors'

MOSCOW • President Vladimir Putin has referred to pro-Western Russians as "scum and traitors" who needed to be removed from society, describing the war in Ukraine as part of an existential clash with the US, setting the stage for an ever fiercer crackdown at home and even more aggression abroad.

Comparing the West to Nazi Germany, the Russian leader laced his speech with derision for the "political beau monde" in Europe and the United States, and for the "slave-like" Russians who supported it.

It was a far more hardline message than one delivered earlier on Wednesday by Mr Putin's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said Russia saw "a certain hope that a compromise can be reached" with Ukraine to end the war.

The clash in tone indicated that even as Mr Putin was directing his officials to explore a negotiated end to a war in which Russia faced far heavier resistance than the Kremlin had anticipated, he was prepared to keep raising the stakes in his conflict with the West.

And in reserving his toughest language for fellow Russians who disagreed with him, he opened the door to a new wave of repression that could hit a much broader swathe of society than the activists and journalists whom the Kremlin has targeted in recent months.

"The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew into their mouths," he said. "I am convinced such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to respond to any challenges."

The beginnings of a new crackdown quickly emerged. The authorities announced a criminal case against lifestyle blogger Veronika Belotserkovskaya for anti-war Instagram posts that "discredited the state authorities and the armed forces of the Russian Federation".

The government blocked access to the BBC News website and promised this was "only the beginning of the response to the information war unleashed by the West against Russia".

Ms Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of political analysis firm R.Politik, said Mr Putin was signalling to the law enforcement authorities across the country that they should target "all spheres of society showing any sympathy to the Western way of life".

"This speech was, in part, an informal and indirect sanctioning of mass repression," she said. "His speech was scary - very scary."

Mr Putin insisted in his speech, at the start of a televised videoconference with senior officials, that Russia's military tactics in Ukraine had "fully justified themselves".

But even pro-Kremlin analysts said Russia was becoming bogged down in a bloodier conflict than anticipated - because Mr Putin had apparently believed many Ukrainian soldiers would lay down their arms rather than fight.

"The military operation is, no question, tougher going than expected," said Mr Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin commentator. "It was expected that 30 per cent to 50 per cent of Ukrainian armed forces would switch over to Russia's side. No one is switching over."

As a result, Mr Putin appears to be probing for an exit that would fall short of his original aim to topple the government of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, even as his military continues to pound Ukrainian cities.

Russian and Ukrainian officials spoke by video link for a third straight day on Wednesday, and Mr Putin's lead negotiator said there had been "a certain progress on a number of positions, but not all".

Ms Stanovaya said Mr Putin appeared to be leaving the unpleasant work of negotiating a compromise end to the war to his officials, while he himself set the stage for a bigger showdown with the West and with pro-Western Russians.

It was also possible, she said, that the negotiations were a bluff to buy the Kremlin time to prepare for an assault on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

"It's dirty work to negotiate with Nazis," she said, sarcastically channelling Mr Putin's rhetoric about Ukraine's leaders. "He's got little to be happy about in this situation."

The West, Mr Putin said, was waging "total, undisguised" war against Russia with an "economic blitzkrieg" as well as "political and informational means".

In a blunt acknowledgement of the pain caused by Western sanctions, he said Russia had to prepare for a "temporary rise in inflation and unemployment" as it embarked on "deep, structural changes of our economy".

He claimed the West was echoing the Nazis' anti-Semitic pogroms in "cancelling" Russia by banning "Russian music, culture and literature". "There is only one goal," he said. "The destruction of Russia."

He said he would fight back - including by cracking down on the West's supporters inside Russia. He has spoken in years past about a "fifth column" of Russians whose allegiances are with the West. But on Wednesday, he reprised that theme with a new intensity, suggesting any Russian with ties to the West could be considered a traitor.

"They will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on national traitors, on those who earn money here, with us, but live there," Mr Putin said. "And 'live' not even in the geographical sense of the word, but in their thoughts, in their slave-like consciousness."

NYTIMES