Putin Ramps Up Rhetoric In SPIEF Speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin speakingat the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on the war in Ukraine, issuing hard-line rhetoric on the potential for the use of nuclear weapons, the risk of direct conflict with NATO, and on the potential for dialogue.

• Putin says that former US President Donald Trump introduced a lot of sanctions against Russia but that "I don't rule out we could have gone the path of peaceful resolution in Ukraine under other US administration", potentially implying that should Trump have won the 2020 presidential election the invasion of Ukraine would not have taken place.
• Putin states that 'We are ready for contact with the US administration, there is almost no contact now...We have never rejected dialogue, they decided to stop it, but in the end they will want to...We have never closed doors for diplomacy"
• Putin: "There is danger of drawing NATO into the conflict...If F16s are deployed outside Ukraine's borders but used in combat actions, we may consider how and where to hit them"
• Putin: "Usage of nuclear weapon is possible in theory in case of danger to our territory, but there is no need...We have more such weapons than NATO...Tactical nuclear weapon is already in Belarus...We may use nuclear weapon only in case of threat to existence of Russian state."