In essence, Putin's State of the Union address did not contain much new. The fact that Ukraine is actually waging a war against the West, which wants to kill Russia, has often been heard from the Russian president and his propagandists. It is a justification for an unjustifiable war of aggression. It makes a mockery not only of the victims in Ukraine, but also of the many fallen Russian soldiers.

It is a lie when Putin says that the West started the war. On February 24, 2022, no Western soldier crossed the borders of Ukraine, they were Russian. It is not true that the West wants to take away territory in Ukraine from Russia, as it claims. Ukraine is a sovereign state in which Putin has now annexed four oblasts and Crimea in violation of international law.

Brutal violation of the UN Charter

Nor is it true that the West wants to turn a local conflict into a global one. When a permanent member of the UN Security Council invades a neighboring country for the purpose of seizing land, it is not a local matter, but a brutal violation of the UN Charter that no nation can be indifferent to. It is Putin himself who is expanding the conflict beyond Ukraine by repeatedly threatening the West with nuclear weapons.

The memory of the nuclear suitcase was not missing this time, it remains Putin's most effective deterrent method. The fact that he not only referred to new strategic ground systems, but also suspended the New START Treaty, is irresponsible. This is the last nuclear arms control treaty between America and Russia, in this field the two countries are now back at the level of the sixties.

It is doubtful that Putin will be able to afford a Cold War-style nuclear arms race anytime soon. But the world is not safer without the treaty, just as it is insecure at all with a belligerent conspiracy theorist in the Kremlin.