The Putin Thread

[Ravenlocke]

News of Donbass

🇷🇺 President #Putin lays wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in #Moscow to commemorate the beginning of the Great Patriotic War

On 22 June 1941 — 85 years ago — Hitler invaded the USSR

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https://x.com/News_of_Donbass/status...93794691743752

[Tintin]

Photo of Vladimir Putin with his father Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin - year unknown

This may have been taken sometime in the late 1950s/early 1960s, but it is a terrific photo all the same:

Source via X: https://x.com/SMO_VZ/status/2069026432546668986

VLADIMIR PUTIN & His Father : Picture

Vladimir Putin has rarely spoken in emotional or effusive terms about his personal relationships, including with his father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (a WWII veteran, factory worker, and survivor of severe wounds). He tends to be reserved about private family matters.

However, in his 2000 book *First Person* (based on interviews), his official Kremlin biography, a 2010 interview, and a 2015 column he wrote, Putin has shared respectful, admiring reflections on his father’s character, wartime heroism, resilience, and the family’s endurance through hardship.

He portrays a positive view rooted in respect, trust in his father’s stories, and pride in his ordinary working-class roots.

On his family background and roots:

“I come from an ordinary family, and this is how I lived for a long time, nearly my whole life. I lived as an average, normal person and I have always maintained that connection.”

He also recounted his parents’ early life factually and with a note of pride in their pre-war achievements:

“My father was born in St Petersburg in 1911. ... It was in Pominovo that my father met my mother, and they got married at the age of 17.”

“Before the war [World War II], my parents occupied half of the house in Peterhof and were very proud of the living standards they had achieved then. It wasn’t really much, but it seemed like an ultimate dream to them.”

On his father’s character and wartime stories Putin described : “My father was a silent man.”

He then recounted in detail the heroic sabotage mission his father survived (one of only four out of 28 men), including hiding in a swamp and breathing through a reed while German dogs passed overhead. Putin presented it as a story his father personally told him

In a 2010 interview (while Prime Minister) about his parents’ war experiences:

“My father had told me that he was with a partisan unit in the beginning of the war, but I later found out that in reality he was with a sabotage group. When I was President, I requested documents from the archives. My father was no longer alive then, had already passed away.
"Amazingly, the documents tallied with everything he had told me, right down to the tiniest detail.”

Putin noted that his parents avoided discussing the war much because it was painful (they had lost an older son during the Siege of Leningrad)

On his parents’ resilience and lack of hatred, In a May 2015 column Putin wrote for 'Russian Pioneer' magazine:

“There wasn’t a family who didn’t lose someone [during the war]. But there was no hatred toward the enemy, and that’s what was amazing.”

He recalled his father living with lifelong shrapnel fragments in his leg from wounds sustained in combat. The column frames his parents’ generation (including his father) with admiration for their endurance, lack of bitterness, and humanity despite immense suffering.

Putin has consistently described his father as a tough, hardworking, ordinary Soviet citizen and war hero whose experiences shaped the family’s modest, resilient life in a communal apartment in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
He has voiced respect, trust, admiration for his father’s strength and honesty, and a positive connection to his family heritage.

Putin, born to a Hero & dedicated his life to be as strong and as patriotic to Russia as his father !

[Ravenlocke]

RT_India

📹 Putin Salutes Russia’s Navy, Hails Country As A ‘Great Maritime Power’

Marking Navy Day, the Russian President praised generations of sailors and scientists whose “military triumphs,” hard work and scientific achievements helped secure Russia’s maritime status.

He added that Moscow continues to develop its naval forces while strengthening the professionalism of its sailors.

https://x.com/RT_India_news/status/2081248569818837018

RT_India

📹 ‘Entire Country Supports Them and Looks Forward to Them Coming back home with Victory,’ Putin Hails Russian Navy’s Role In Special Military Operation

‘Devoted Sons Of Russia, Under Russian Flag Have Conquered The Seas,’ Putin Marks Navy Day From St. Petersburg

Speaking from the Main Admiralty, the Russian President said the day is celebrated with “great Respect” for sailors and heroes of the Navy’s long history.

https://x.com/RT_India_news/status/2081393100489105408

[Ravenlocke]

Brian McDonald

Putin told reporters today that he does, in fact, read bloggers and social media channels, despite the long-standing claim that he barely uses the internet.

“There are bloggers whom I sometimes watch with genuine interest,” he said. “Sometimes I’m even pleased, they get it exactly right.”

Putin added that online channels are “not useless,” but claimed they contain “an enormous amount of informational garbage” and can easily mislead people without enough background knowledge. He said he still relies primarily on official sources, but makes his final judgments based on “the entire volume of information” that reaches him.

It's an interesting detail given how often Kremlin officials and people close to Putin have said over the years that he doesn't personally use the internet in anything like the normal sense. Unless, of course, texts are printed out for him, or videos uploaded to TV. But that would be rather strange and cumbersome?

https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status...51661650719149

[Ravenlocke]

RTRussia

Jul 25
Putin arrives in the Russian city of Omsk

Plans to meet with Kazakhstan's President Tokayev and take part in the 22nd Forum of Interregional Cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan

https://x.com/RT_Russia_/status/2080983365449048322

APT News

Jul 25
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev tour exhibition stands highlighting Russian-Kazakh bilateral cooperation during a joint forum. The leaders viewed displays showcasing economic partnerships, industrial collaboration, investment opportunities, technology, trade, infrastructure, and cross-border initiatives aimed at strengthening ties between Russia and Kazakhstan.

#Putin #Tokayev #Russia #Kazakhstan #RussiaKazakhstan

https://x.com/APT__News/status/2081039128599449907

RT_India

Jul 25
📹 Tokayev Floats ‘Freeze’ Option For Ukraine Conflict, Says ‘All Of This Must Be Stopped’

During talks with Putin in Omsk, the Kazakh president said “nobody knows how to resolve this situation,” adding that freezing the issue remains “a proven international practice.”


https://x.com/RT_India_news/status/2081049587050320010

Brian McDonald

Jul 25
Kazakh President Tokayev, speaking alongside Putin in Omsk, suggested freezing the Ukraine conflict and returning to what he called an “Istanbul 2.0” formula.

Tokayev said he had been receiving “many signals” from Western Europe and the US and had already discussed them with Putin by phone and he also praised Putin for showing “maximum diplomatic flexibility” at the Anchorage meeting in Alaska, last year.

“Perhaps this conflict should now be frozen and we should return to the Istanbul formula 2.0, since significant results were achieved there,” Tokayev said, adding that any settlement would require guarantees from major powers, including Russia.


https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status...00395447345417

[Ravenlocke]

Brian McDonald

Putin did a brief walkabout in Novosibirsk today, stopping his motorcade on the way to the airport to greet a group of young people gathered on the street.

He’s been visiting a number of Siberian cities over the past couple of weeks, including Irkutsk and Ulan Ude, ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections.

It follows a fairly long period where he mostly only travelled between Moscow and St Petersburg, except for a few events where foreign leaders were present.

Putin warns AI could divide society into a “small intellectual elite and a much larger group of people who no longer need to think for themselves,” simply pushing buttons while their “grey matter” gradually shrinks.

He told a group of scientists in Novosibirsk that whether educators can realistically prevent that outcome is a big question, claiming that as AI becomes capable of instantly producing answers, the number of people who actually think, develop ideas and build the technology could become smaller and smaller, while for the majority there would be little need to think at all

https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status...45520142217434

Margarita Simonyan

The young Russian scientists reassure the boss that he has nothing to fear from AI.

"I've never been afraid of anything," Putin replies

https://x.com/M_Simonyan/status/2087129141489340502

[Ravenlocke]

Aleksey The Great 🇷🇺🎖

Vladimir Putin, returning from Novosibirsk, noticed ordinary people who were waiting for his motorcade and simply wanted to wave. As a result, the president ordered the motorcade to stop right on the road so he could interact with the locals and shake hands with the workers.🇷🇺

https://x.com/aleksthgrt/status/2087466146173747303

☦️Jacob🇷🇺Charite☦️ Иаков reposted

GDams

Translated from French
🚨🔴🔥‼️ 🇷🇺 PUTIN ACCLAIMED...
While Macron hides behind 50 riot police and anti-riot barriers just to lay a wreath…
🇷🇺 Putin steps out of his car right in the middle of the road, shakes hands, smiles, talks to people.
The crowd welcomes him like a father.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich!”
“All the best to you!”
No tomatoes thrown.
No “Macron resign.”
No 15,000 police to secure a 200-meter trip.
Just Russians who love their president.
And a president who isn’t afraid of his people.
Meanwhile in France:
Unenforced deportation orders, squatting, streets overrun by crime, and a head of state who doesn’t set foot outside without armor.
The difference?
One governs a country.
The other manages a gray zone.

Like + RT if you prefer a president who shakes hands over a president who hides.

Comment: “Who’s still afraid of their own people here?” 🇫🇷

https://x.com/Gdams70/status/2087473608461373522

[Ravenlocke]

SIMPLICIUS Ѱ

⚡️‼️🇷🇺Breaking: Putin is mobbed by the oppressed children he's starving with high gas prices, a clear demonstration of his declining popularity

https://x.com/simpatico771/status/2087385948401095143

Brian McDonald

This was the third time this summer that Putin has unexpectedly stopped his motorcade and got out to meet members of the public.

He did the same in Kazan on June 17 and again in St Petersburg on July 26, when he spent a short time shaking hands and speaking with people near the Admiralty.

The increasingly frequent walkabouts are a noticeable departure from the much more tightly controlled public appearances of recent years

https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status...08778908918042

[Ravenlocke]

Brian McDonald

Putin has visited the disputed Kuril Islands for the first time as Russian president, effectively drawing a line under his long effort to reach a territorial compromise and final WW2 peace treaty with Japan.

Four territories are claimed by Japan (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets) but the 1956 Soviet-Japanese declaration envisaged transferring only Shikotan and Habomai after the conclusion of a peace treaty, which has never been signed.

The symbolism here is fairly unmistakable because Putin had deliberately avoided the islands throughout his five presidential terms while negotiations with Tokyo remained alive. Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian president to visit them in 2010, but Putin stayed away even during the relatively warm Abe years.

His visit to Iturup now comes after Moscow abandoned peace-treaty negotiations in 2022 following Japan’s sanctions over Ukraine, and a day after Putin said relations with Tokyo had fundamentally changed.

https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status...48294244405259

[Ravenlocke]

Spetsnaℤ 007 🇷🇺

🇷🇺 President Putin for the first time as President visiting Russia's Kuril Islands.

Japan allied with Nazi Germany and Finland invaded the USSR but lost to the Red Army forcing them to cede territory.

Kaliningrad from Germany
Karelia from Finland
The Kuril Islands from Japan

https://x.com/Alex_Oloyede2/status/2087890763560419506

[Ravenlocke]

Brian McDonald

Ahead of his first visit to the disputed Kurill Islands, Putin accused Japan of increasingly treating Russia as a security threat despite, in his words, Moscow posing no threat to Japan.

“Japan, our neighbouring country, has used the events in Ukraine as a pretext, without examining the causes of the conflict, to pursue an unprovoked policy against Russia,” he said. Putin noted that Japan’s latest military doctrine lists Russia among its principal security threats.

“I would like to stress that we don't threaten Japan. We have absolutely no claims against it,” he said. “But Japan does have territorial claims against our country. I mean the issue of the former islands

https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status...96307805417886

[Ravenlocke]

Jungle Journey

Putin makes a historic visit to Kuril islands, reaffirming the Russian sovereignty over the archipelago.

The Russian president tried local caviar on the Iturup island, describing it as "delicious."

https://x.com/JnglJourney/status/2087845100147613917

[Ravenlocke]

MFA Russia 🇷🇺

🎙
@RusEmbassyJ
:

The southern Kuril Islands are an integral part of Russia following WWII. Their status is not subject to question.

President #Putin’s travel within Russian territory is a sovereign matter & not subject to discussion with foreign states.

https://t.me/MFARussia/31419

https://x.com/mfa_russia/status/2087903318521643412

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉

Vladimir Putin visited Iturup for the first time — the largest island of the Kuril chain. In Tokyo, there is hysteria. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi cannot calm down. Russian Ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev was urgently summoned to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. He explained that the southern Kuril Islands are an integral part of Russia.

August 15 is the anniversary of the surrender of the Japanese Empire. Things never reached the scenario that had originally been planned. According to the 1945 agreements, the Soviet Union was supposed not only to occupy the Kurils — Iturup, Kunashir, Habomai and Shikotan — but also to land troops on Hokkaido and the northern part of Honshu. There were earlier discussions of dividing Japan itself into occupation zones (similar to postwar Germany), including a possible Soviet zone on Hokkaido and northern Honshu. In the end, the US occupied Japan alone under General MacArthur, but the islands were still redistributed.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 — the same day the USSR entered the war — were not only a military but also a political move. President Truman was in a hurry to end the war so that the occupation of Japan would be carried out exclusively by American troops under General Douglas MacArthur. Nuclear weapons gave Washington the argument it needed to avoid dividing Japan into spheres of influence. The Soviet Union did receive the Kurils, but the landing on Hokkaido and Honshu remained only on paper.

The dispute over Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai is a direct legacy of that August of 1945. Tokyo considers them “inherently Japanese territory” illegally occupied after the surrender, when the USSR deported about 17,000 Japanese residents from the islands. Moscow insists on the results of the Second World War, the Yalta Agreement and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. Because of this dispute, Russia and Japan still — eight decades later — have not signed a peace treaty.

Moscow has already drawn the line: Japan must choose between serving as NATO’s anti-Russian outpost supporting Ukraine in Asia and negotiating a peace treaty. Tokyo chose the former—sanctions, military aid to Ukraine, and confrontation. And today Japan argues about a trip to a fish plant. The Japanese government can gather the courage to take offense at Putin’s visit to Iturup but lacks the courage to answer the question of which country bombed Japan with nuclear weapons—or to explain why it chose NATO over diplomacy and now complains about the consequences.

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/2088007842678931904

Brian McDonald

Japan has condemned Putin’s first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, saying the trip to Iturup was “absolutely unacceptable” and had made any improvement in relations with Moscow more difficult.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the visit “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people” and urged Moscow to recognise the seriousness of Tokyo’s protest.

Japan claims Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets, which were taken by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two

https://x.com/BrianMcDonaldIE/status...49073894154462

[Ravenlocke]

Dmitry Medvedev

Japan’s PM Takaichi can prattle on all she likes about the Kuril Islands being “historically Japanese,” but this chatter won’t change a thing. They were, are, and will remain Russian land. Anyone who fails to understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their delusion.

https://x.com/MedvedevRussiaE/status...36788840710300

[Ravenlocke]

🇷🇺 STANISLAV KRAPIVNIK 🇷🇺

The Kuril Islands Hysteria of Japanese Revisionists

There was nothing extraordinary about the President's visit. A fish processing plant called "Yasnoye," workshops, caviar, a conversation with workers. A hospital. A school named after Hero of Russia Eduard Norpolov. The head of state working in his own territory. But this normalcy once again drove the Japanese crazy.

The Japanese Foreign Minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, issued a "resolute protest," claiming to have learned from the media that the Russian President had visited "Etorofu." The news immediately became a top story in Japanese media.

The protest has been noted. And added to the pile of similar ones.

Because this dispute has no prospects. There are Japanese signatures – and a campaign that Tokyo launched when those signatures became inconvenient. The leading Russian expert on Japan, Anatoly Koshkin, mercilessly laid out the timeline in the journal "Rodina."

Since the late 18th century, the Kuril Islands – all of them, including the southern ones – have been part of the Russian Empire. Then came 1905: the lost Russo-Japanese War, Portsmouth, and territory taken. And when Tokyo, in San Francisco, renounced the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin, as Koshkin writes, this exactly compensated for the losses of 1904-1905.

We didn't take anything that wasn't ours. We returned what was ours.

Yalta, 1945: Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill return all the Kuril Islands to their rightful owner – Russia. The Potsdam Declaration, on the terms of which Tokyo signed its surrender. Memorandum MacArthur No. 677/1 of January 29, 1946 – all the Kuril Islands were removed from Japanese jurisdiction. There were no objections at the time.

1951. Japan signs and ratifies the San Francisco Peace Treaty, in which it renounces "all rights, titles and claims to the Kuril Islands." All of them. Not two, not four.

And then comes the most inconvenient part for the wailers. On July 31, 1952, the Japanese parliament, with all parties, demanded the return of only Habomai and Shikotan. The Prime Minister, Itiro Hatoyama, acknowledged: the issue of all the Kuril Islands was resolved in Yalta. In a 1956 declaration, the USSR agreed to transfer Habomai and Shikotan – and only them – but after the conclusion of a peace treaty. Khrushchev, on October 16 of that year, stated: "We will not accept any Japanese claims on the territorial issue, except for Habomai and Shikotan."

And then, under pressure from Washington, Tokyo changed its tune. Instead of a peace treaty, there was a renewed alliance with the United States in 1960 and American bases. Instead of Habomai and Shikotan, there was a demand for Kunashir and Iturup, the largest and most developed islands. And budget money for the campaign "to return the northern territories."

The Kuril Islands are Russia. Not by the right of force, but by the right of the signature that Tokyo once put with its own hand. Dialogue is possible. But it begins precisely with this recognition – and not a second sooner.

@sashakots
Image


https://x.com/STANISKRAPIVNIK/status...38050273780130

George Szamuely

Nice try,
@WSJ
: "Russia seized the islands from Japan in the dying days of World War II and a dispute over their sovereignty has bedeviled relations between Moscow and Tokyo ever since."

https://wsj.com/world/asia/russia-ja...d=hp_lead_pos6

No, there was no seizure. Possession of these islands was transferred to the Soviet Union at Yalta in February 1945:
"The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored, viz: (a)the southern part of Sakhalin as well as all the islands adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union."

https://history.state.gov/historical...1945Malta/d503

Moreover, Japan renounced its claims to the Kuriles in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco--effectively, Japan's peace treaty with the United States and allied powers:

"Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Kurile Islands, and to that portion of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it over which Japan acquired sovereignty as a consequence of the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905."

Unfortunately, Japan's legal claims are pretty flimsy.

https://x.com/GeorgeSzamuely/status/2087906838868103601

[Ravenlocke]

In 2023 Putin sings the national anthem at Luzhniki Stadium

https://x.com/jacksonhinkle/status/1685459290209898496

[Ravenlocke]

Sputnik

Putin visits Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin

The visit comes after the relics of Dmitry Donskoy were discovered during restoration work at the cathedral.

Dmitry Donskoy was the first Russian prince to lead the armed struggle against the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the 14th century.

During the visit, President Putin also took part in a prayer service.

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/2090396424810664219

☦️Jacob🇷🇺Charite☦️ Иаков reposted

Based Serbia

🇷🇺☦️ Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin bowed before the relics of St. Dmitry Donskoy in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

St. Dmitry Donskoy (1350–1389) was Grand Prince of Moscow and one of medieval Russia’s most important rulers. He:

• led the Russian forces to victory over the Mongol-Tatar army at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380
• strengthened Moscow and helped unite the Russian lands
• was a patron of the Orthodox Church and closely associated with St. Sergius of Radonezh
• was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint

https://x.com/SerbiaBased/status/2090415547095675032

[Ravenlocke]

Aleksey The Great 🇷🇺🎖

Signs of a severe head injury were discovered on the remains of Prince Dmitry Donskoy.🇷🇺🙏

What else was Vladimir Putin told about the restoration work that resulted in the discovery of Dmitry Donskoy's relics:

▪️The sarcophagus contains the remains of a man aged 35-45, of strong build, 175-177 cm tall, with a severe injury that was not fatal.

▪️The condition of the bones indicates that he was a physically strong warrior.

▪️The remains are remarkably well-preserved—there is soft tissue, a rarity.

▪️After the Battle of Kulikovo, Dmitry Donskoy was found unconscious under a broken birch tree, and his armor saved him from more severe injuries.

▪️Several fragments of Dmitry Donskoy's relics were discovered during restoration work in the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral in July 2026.

▪️Prince Dmitry Donskoy was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988—the millennium anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'—at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

https://x.com/aleksthgrt/status/2090425543049027650

[Ravenlocke]

RT

Russia is the only country with expertise across all sectors of the nuclear energy industry — Putin marks 81 years since its creation

He hails Russia’s unique capabilities in ensuring ‘reliable operation of NPPs’

‘This is what makes us leaders in building NPPs across the world

'We will expand the geography of the nuclear energy blocks' — President Putin

'We will have nuclear power plants in the Urals, in Siberia, in the Russia's Far East'


https://x.com/RT_com/status/2090422483748889031

[Ravenlocke]

RTRussia

Putin smiles as huge hall ERUPTS in chants of 'RUSSIA, RUSSIA' when he takes to stage

Russian people are our power, and foundation of political legitimacy — Vladimir Putin

'We will continue holding elections throughout the territory of the Russian Federation

https://x.com/RT_Russia_/status/2091120363295969640

Sputnik

🚨🇷🇺 Putin takes the stage at United Russia party congress & congratulates Russians on Flag Day

The Russian flag, along with the coat of arms and anthem, embodies Russia's great and continuous history, Vladimir Putin said.

The audience chanted "Russia" as they welcomed the president

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/2091119971526951290