In Photos: How Putin's Address Really Was One to the Entire Nation
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday gave his much-anticipated first address to the nation since ordering the invasion of Ukraine exactly a year ago. However, the members of the Putinist elite invited to Moscow's Gostiny Dvor for the event were far from the only people listening to the proceedings.
As members of both chambers of Russia's parliament, cabinet ministers, regional politicians, military top brass, business leaders, and cultural figures all took their seats in Moscow, the spectacle was broadcast across Russia's 11 time zones on multiple TV and media channels, in government buildings, educational facilities and even in public spaces.
Soldiers on the frontlines in Ukraine, university students, and even those just out walking the dog were left with little choice but to listen to the head of state defend his "special military operation" with selective readings of history while also castigating the West for its attempts to destroy Russia.
As members of both chambers of Russia's parliament, cabinet ministers, regional politicians, military top brass, business leaders, and cultural figures all took their seats in Moscow, the spectacle was broadcast across Russia's 11 time zones on multiple TV and media channels, in government buildings, educational facilities and even in public spaces.
Soldiers on the frontlines in Ukraine, university students, and even those just out walking the dog were left with little choice but to listen to the head of state defend his "special military operation" with selective readings of history while also castigating the West for its attempts to destroy Russia.
Overlooked by an outdoor video screen airing the president's speech, a passerby goes shopping at Moscow's Varshavka Sky shopping center.
Maxim Churusov / TASS
Seagulls scatter in the port city of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea.
Victor Korotayev / Kommersant
The president looms over the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea.
Victor Korotayev / Kommersant
An outdoor video screen on the side of the Varshavka Sky shopping center in Moscow.
Vyacheslav Prokofyev / TASS
The Russian president's speech is broadcast through a shop window in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Alexander Reka / TASS
Children at an orphanage in Krasny Luch, in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.
Artyom Geodakyan / TASS
Pedestrians walk past an outdoor video screen showing Putin's speech along with live transcription in Volgograd.
Dmitry Rogulin / TASS
Putin speaks from the side of a building on Moscow's Bolshaya Tulskaya Street.
Moskva News Agency
Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops watch Putin's address in a dug-out shelter in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
Sergei Malgavko / TASS
A giant video screen projects the president's speech on the side of a residential building on Moscow's Leninsky Prospekt.
Moskva News Agency
