On January 18, St. Petersburg was in the cold wind, and the city once known as Leningrad was filled with a tragic and solemn atmosphere, while Russian President Vladimir Putin, dressed in black and holding a bouquet of red flowers, arrived at the city's Piskariov cemetery.
In this cemetery, a total of 420,000 civilian victims and 70,000 Soviet soldiers are buried, all of whom died in the "defense of Leningrad" during World War II. The 872-day siege killed or wounded 1.33 million Soviet soldiers and more than 1 million citizens.
Putin knows this bloody and tragic history well, because his father was seriously wounded in the battle, and his younger brother died during the siege.
Eighty years ago, on January 18, the Red Army finally broke through the 17-month German siege of Leningrad until January 1944. In the blink of an eye, 80 years later, Russia held a commemorative event to commemorate the battle, and paying homage to the dead was only one of Putin's trips that day.
In addition, Putin has two important itineraries.
The first was to meet with World War II veterans and survivors of the Leningrad siege, expressing respect for the soldiers and trapped people, emphasizing that future generations must remember these "historical memories" and recognize that the Nazis committed genocide against the Soviet people in World War II.
During his speech, Putin's three-paragraph statement attracted the attention of domestic and foreign media.
First, remember history in order to be able to respond more promptly to the new threats facing the country.
This is inevitably reminiscent of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Moscow believes that Ukrainian neo-Nazis threaten Russia's national security, and Russia's emphasis on commemorations of the defense of Leningrad is undoubtedly to emphasize the need to "denazify" Ukraine.
Second, "large-scale combat operations involving heavy weapons, artillery, tanks and aircraft have not stopped in the Donbass since 2014."
Immediately afterwards, Putin also said, "As part of the special military operation, everything we are doing today is aimed at stopping this war." That's what we're doing — protecting the people who live in these territories."
For this set of rhetoric, the West and Ukraine have criticized as always, believing that Putin is making excuses for the "unprovoked aggression" of the Russian army, and "Ukrainian Pravda" angrily denounced Putin as a connoisseur of history who loves to fabricate lies.
However, in the eyes of those who support Putin, there is nothing wrong with his statement.
Because the Kiev regime has indeed failed to guarantee the autonomy of the people in the Donbas region, the Ukrainian neo-Nazi group "Azov Battalion" has committed a lot of crimes in Wudong, and the Zelensky government's behavior of allowing the West to manipulate has threatened Russia's national security.
All in all, the differences between the two sides are very large, this is actually part of the "public opinion war", Russia and Ukraine want to add legitimacy to their actions, Zelensky went to speak in the parliaments of many countries, isn't it a similar calculation?
Thirdly, "representatives of many European countries took part in the siege of Leningrad and committed crimes. We've never talked about this before, because there is a certain tolerance, in order not to ruin the relationship. ”
This is the first time Putin has talked about it, and he gave the example of the "Blue Division near Stalingrad," which refers to a volunteer unit from Spain that helped the Germans. Putin also stressed that there are many such troops, "it is everywhere."
Putin brought up this topic, of course, not on a whim, he wanted to remind people of the current situation of the Russian army, that is, it is ostensibly at war with the Ukrainian army, but in fact it is fighting with Western proxies, and Russia is facing the entire Western "coalition army".
After finishing his speech, Putin began another of his trips - a visit to a local arsenal. He promised to provide more social benefits to workers, and confidently said that "the courage and heroism of our soldiers" and our efforts in the defense industry will ensure Russia's ultimate victory.
It can be seen that the logistics of the Russian army is still the focus of Putin's attention.
All indications are that the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the "Battle for Leningrad" actually provides Putin with an excellent opportunity to once again unite consensus, unite people's hearts and morale at the beginning of 2023.
But in the final analysis, the enlightenment of wars in history should be to be prepared for danger in times of peace and cherish peace, whether it is Russia, Ukraine, or the United States and the West, they all experienced great suffering in World War II.
Then it is time to sit down and have a good dialogue and try to end the war as soon as possible.