Speaking in his annual press conference concerning the end of 2024, President Putin contended that Russia's military has in fact become stronger in recent years.
“Our defense capabilities are the highest in the world, same for our military industry. Our forces are advancing,” he opined.
He went further, saying that “Russia is in a state that we aimed for — Russia has become stronger and we will make decisions without considering the opinions of others.”
The Russian president is circumspect when asked about whether the West understood last month's changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine. “I don’t know how they understood it," he said. "You’d have to ask them.”
He continued, saying about the West that “if such states pose a threat to us, we reserve the right to use our nuclear weapons against them as well.”
Last month, Putin made changes to Russia’s doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons, setting out new conditions for when the country could deploy its nuclear arsenal.
The ‘Oreshnik’ missile defense system is a “modern, very new weapon,” Putin says in response to a question referring to the West's doubts about Russia's missile capabilities, according to NBC news.
"Let us conduct an experiment, sort of high-tech duel. Let them (the West) name a target in Kiev, concentrate their air defense and the let us fire Oreshnik to see if it hits the target," he said. "No chance of shooting it down."
The Kremlin announced Monday that Russia would launch the serial production of the missiles in the “near future” to “protect the security of Russia and our allies.”
Russian forces first deployed the Oreshnik missile late last month, striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, after Kyiv used long-range missiles provided by France, the United States and the United Kingdom to strike targets within Russia.
"We are advancing on all directions," Putin says when asked about events in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces still hold territory. The situation there is "changing dramatically," he says.
When asked by a resident of Kursk's Bolshesoldastsky district about the destroyed villages there, Putin says “it’s certain that Ukrainians will be pushed out and everything will be rebuilt," and that their push into the region was pointless in the first place.
But Putin adds that he will not “make any predictions about specific date” about when either of those things will happen.
Despite inflation in the country at 9.3%, Putin say the "Russian economy is doing good," adding that wages and real disposable income have grown, with growth next year estimated to be around 3.9%.
Russia’s central bank may have to further increase interest rates above the current level of 21% that they raised it to in October.
MNA/PR