President Putin used his annual news conference to emphasize Russia's strength, claiming that the military operation in Ukraine has made the country more sovereign and powerful.
MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin boasted that his military operation in Ukraine has strengthened Russia and denied that the downfall of a key ally in Syria had dented Moscow's prestige, as he sought to project strength and ease at his annual news conference and call-in show Thursday.
As is typical, the Russian leader used the tightly choreographed event, which usually lasts hours, to reinforce his authority and demonstrate a sweeping command of everything from consumer prices to military hardware. He claimed that nearly three years of fighting in Ukraine has hardened the Russian economy and the country's military and hailed his troops' gains there. 'Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years because it has become a truly sovereign country,” he said. “We are standing firm in terms of economy, we are strengthening our defense potential and our military capability now is the strongest in the world.” Putin, who has held power for nearly a quarter-century, said the military was “advancing toward achieving our goals” in what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine. In response to a question about a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile that Russia used for the first time last month to strike Ukraine, Putin scoffed at claims by some Western experts that it could be intercepted by NATO’s air defenses. He mockingly challenged Ukraine’s Western allies to a “high-tech duel,” suggesting that Moscow could give advance notice of a strike on Kyiv with the Oreshnik missile — and see if the West could protect the city. “Let them select a target, possibly in Kyiv, put their air defense assets there and we shall strike it with Oreshnik,” he said with a dry smile. “Let’s see what happens.” Russian troops are making steady, if slow, advances in Ukraine — but the Kremlin has also suffered some embarrassing setbacks. Just this week, a senior Russian general was killed by a bomb outside his apartment building in Mosco
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