"Nutshell Madness": Insights from Putin's final press conference for Ukraine and the world.

For the second consecutive year, Putin combined his final press conference with a "Direct Line," during which he supposedly answers questions from the population of the aggressor country. The current event took place on Thursday, December 19, and lasted over four hours. This time was more than enough for the internationally recognized criminal Putin to respond to a wide range of questions. Meanwhile, the bulk of the communication "show" was taken up by his – Putin's – "special operation" in Ukraine.

According to the organizers, this year Russians sent Putin around 2 million questions. Notably, Putin has held these final conferences at the end of December since 2001. It was only in 2022, shortly before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that the "eternal" master of the Kremlin broke this long-standing tradition and did not appear in public.

Today, when the slogan "Kyiv in three days" turned almost three years old, Putin was asked how he assesses the progress of the "special military operation" and whether victory is closer. He replied: "It's difficult to predict, but Moscow is moving towards its initial objectives outlined at the beginning of the 'SVO'."

A journalist from the American NBC channel asked Putin what he could offer future President Donald Trump when they meet. The reporter added the following remark to his question: "You have not achieved the goals of the military operation, many Russians have died, including your general who was killed right in Moscow, and the leader of Syria, whom you supported, was ousted from the country. When you meet with future President Trump, you will be a weaker leader."

Putin, noting that he hadn't spoken with Trump for four years, added: "You would very much like Russia to be weakened. But Russia has become much stronger over the past three years – we are becoming a truly sovereign country, and we depend little on anyone. The combat capability of the Russian army is now the highest in the world."

One could only add that the Russian army is so "combat-ready" that, according to military experts, it has been unable to extend a helping hand to the regime of Syrian dictator Assad, even if it wanted to. It's not hard to guess what contribution the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have made to this "combat readiness." Furthermore, according to various sources, the losses of the aggressor country in the war significantly exceed those of Ukraine. For instance, future U.S. special representative for Ukraine Keith Kellogg stated in a recent interview with Fox Business that Moscow has lost five times more soldiers in the war than Kyiv. However, Putin lives in his own – distorted reality, where he is the victor over all, puffing up his botox-enhanced cheeks. For example, in response to another American journalist's question about whether Putin is ready to compromise in peace negotiations with Ukraine, the bunker-dweller replied, as he surely thinks very creatively: "It is the Ukrainian side that refused negotiations – the agreements reached in Istanbul. But your admirer Johnson came, with a good haircut (referring to former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson), and said that we must fight to the last Ukrainian. So they are fighting, but these Ukrainians are already running out. We are ready for negotiations, but the other side must be prepared for compromises."

"The other side" has repeatedly refuted such statements from Putin regarding Mr. Johnson's role. Zelensky's administration pointed out that they refused negotiations because there was no guarantee that Russia would fulfill any agreements. Let us recall that the security guarantees for Ukraine outlined in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 did not include Ukraine's accession to NATO. At the same time, Kyiv believes that the only guarantee of security for our country can be its invitation to the North Atlantic Alliance.

It is quite telling that while expressing supposed readiness for negotiations, Putin categorically opposed a ceasefire: "If we stop hostilities, Ukraine will have the opportunity to receive assistance and prepare, while now the enemy cannot consolidate its positions, which it has retreated from due to the depletion of military equipment and personnel. We need not a truce, but peace, long-term and strong, secured by guarantees for Russian citizens."

When asked with whom Putin is ready to sit at the negotiating table, he replied that only with a "legitimate representative of the Ukrainian authorities." In this context, the Kremlin dictator repeated his well-worn thesis about the illegitimacy of the current government in Ukraine, claiming that there is no provision in the Ukrainian Constitution for extending the president's powers under martial law. In fact, domestic legislation clearly regulates the electoral process during martial law (ML) introduced in February 2022. In particular, during ML, holding presidential, parliamentary, or local elections is impossible; therefore, the decision to suspend elections in 2024 corresponds to the norms of the country's Basic Law. The president, under current legislation, serves until a new one is elected.

When asked whether Putin would change his decision about the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 if he could, he noted that he would have done it earlier and concluded: "We should have started preparing for these measures, particularly for the SVO. The events of 2022 began without any preparation because waiting any longer was simply impossible."

Overall, in just over four hours, Putin presented so much distorted information that it would require several teams of psychiatrists to analyze it. Moreover, the height of absurdity was reached with the Kremlin dictator's comments regarding the infamous "Oreshnik." Thus, for the hundredth time in the last week, Putin praised the new ballistic missile "Oreshnik," which the Russians recently used to strike Dnipro. He claimed that no one has a chance to intercept it: "Let's conduct a high-tech experiment, a duel, so to speak. Let them gather all European and American air defense and missile defense systems, select a target, for example, in Kyiv, and we will strike it with 'Oreshnik' and see what happens."

President Zelensky responded harshly to this Putin "super idea" on social media X (Twitter): "People are dying, and he is 'interested'... Dolb****b," wrote the current master of Bankova. Shortly thereafter, the head of the Office of the President, Ermak, called Putin "an old insane cretin."

"Russia has changed the formula for achieving greatness. Kyiv in three days and one nation is behind us. Now, to become the third pole of the world and have unlimited police powers in the post-Soviet space, Putin believes that two things need to be done: seize part of Ukraine and scare the world with a group strike of 'Oreshnik.' Essentially, this formula is the foundation of Putin's negotiating position at the beginning of 2025. Importantly, this position has been conveyed to Beijing, which has not yet shown any disagreement, silently supporting it. In general, 'Oreshnik' has become Putin's new favorite toy. There is no public appearance by the Russian Führer where he does not talk about the technical characteristics of this missile. For him, 'Oreshnik' is a wunderwaffe that can destroy (in his understanding) all air defense and missile defense systems in Central Eastern Europe and the Pacific region. Moreover, in his mind, there probably exists a picture that he will scare the world by having Belarus and North Korea, along with other possible proxies, do it. An indirect confirmation of this is that he talks so much that the group strike of 'Oreshnik' replaces a nuclear strike in terms of power. It should not be forgotten that the Russian concept of negotiations generally boils down to trying to exchange Ukraine for the assurance that he will protect the world from the madness of Kim and Lukashenko. The concept is not great, but he is trying to sell it," notes political scientist Vadim Denisenko.

Putin's logic, the expert emphasizes, "aside from the psychiatric component, which is very significant," is as follows: he believes that the West should be scared of his missile program and will be forced to sit down with him at the negotiating table to divide the world. "January to May will be the time for active negotiations. If we do not reach some negotiation positions by May-June, the likelihood that the war will last for months increases sharply. Well, the duel between 'Oreshnik' and American air defense is typically Russian thinking in the style of 'tsar-bell' and 'tsar-cannon.' The magnitude of idiocy is directly proportional to the inflation of ego," summarizes Vadim Denisenko.

The morning after Putin's statements, Russians launched a missile strike on Kyiv, further confirming Zelensky's characterization of Putin.

The Kremlin is clearly counting on negotiations. It is obvious that not with Kyiv (according to Putin, Zelensky is illegitimate), but with the USA. However, so far, the situation for the bunker elder is extremely negative. Instead of demonstrating power, he shows his weaknesses. In Syria and Ukraine, he is trying to change attitudes towards himself through terror. What can be said? "Dolb****b"…