World Snore 3: Putin’s elite caught yawning and even sleeping during his marathon rant against the West

Vladimir Putin may be annoyed to find that his long-awaited State of the Union address in central Moscow this morning was not as impressive as he had hoped.

Almost a year to the day he invaded Ukraine, the Moscow despot took the stage in front of both Russian parliaments and a sea of ​​military commanders and launched a marathon diatribe against the West.

He spoke with passion and venom, but even the crème de la crème of the Kremlin could not help but show signs of exhaustion as top officials yawned amid their president’s 115-minute rant.

Clips from the live broadcast of the speech by Russian state media even appeared to show several spectators falling asleep in their seats as Putin rambled on for an hour and 45 minutes.

When his speech finally ended and the Russian national anthem began to blare from the loudspeakers, many in the audience refused to sing, their faces frozen.

Several members of the public in Moscow were seen bowing their heads with their eyes closed and appeared to be falling asleep as Putin continued to ramble

Many of those present covered their mouths to yawn, none of them looking very pleased with the content of Putin’s speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to deliver his annual State of the Union address at the Gostiny Dvor conference center in central Moscow

Images of bored and disapproving officials watching their president scold them recalled similar scenes in September, when Putin gave another long speech in which he announced that Russia had annexed four territories in eastern and southern Ukraine, although not one of them is not fully under control.

READ MORE: US condemns ‘absurdity’ of Putin’s speech as Russian leader accuses West of starting war in Ukraine to gain ‘unlimited power’

For much of his reign, Putin was long regarded as a master communicator and an excellent, engaging speaker, but those days appear to be over.

This morning’s speech at the Gostiny Dvor conference center in the Russian capital was widely varied, although the focus was on his “military special operation” in Ukraine and condemnation of the West.

He accused Western nations of starting the war in Ukraine and trying to turn it into a global conflict against Russia for “unlimited power”.

“We did everything to resolve this issue peacefully, we negotiated a peaceful way out of this difficult conflict, but a completely different scenario was being prepared behind our backs,” Putin told lawmakers and the military.

He said he was addressing her “at a time that we all know is a difficult turning point for our country, a time of fundamental, irreversible changes around the world, of great historical events that will shape the future of our country and … will shape our people”. and promised to “systematically” continue the offensive in Ukraine.

Citing another justification for the war, Putin claimed that his troops were protecting civilians in regions of Ukraine that Moscow has now illegally annexed.

“We are defending people’s lives, our homes,” he said. “And the West seeks unlimited dominance.”

Putin has seen the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region between Kiev’s troops and Russian-backed separatists as a fight for freedom. Fighting has been going on there since 2014 and was used by Putin to justify the start of the major offensive.

Kremlin insiders and top Russian officials listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual State of the Union address

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual State of the Union address

“Donbass has been fighting since 2014 [for the] the right to live in your own country and speak your native language, to fight without surrender in an environment of constant threats and hatred emanating from the regime in Kiev,” he said.

“Meanwhile, and you know this very well, we have done everything possible, really everything possible, to solve this problem peacefully.”

Putin changed course, against the West’s perceived stupidity, saying the West was waging a culture war against Russian Orthodox Christian values.

“The Anglican Church intends to consider the idea of ​​a gender-neutral God… Millions of people in the West understand that they are being led into a real spiritual catastrophe,” Putin declared.

He accused Western countries of changing historical facts to suit “awakening” ideologies and criticized the church’s recent discussions on allowing priests to “bless” same-sex marriages.

“They distort historical facts and constantly attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religions of our country. “Look what they do to their own people: Destruction of family, cultural and national identities, perversion and abuse of children are made the norm. And priests are forced to regulate same-sex marriages,” Putin said.

The despot’s armored motorcade was seen heading towards the Kremlin at around 1am local time before the start of the speech this morning, as traffic in central Moscow came to a standstill to make way.

There was no official explanation for Putin’s nocturnal dash to the Kremlin before the state of the nation address.

Although the constitution requires the president to deliver the speech annually, Putin never delivered one in 2022 as his troops suffered repeated setbacks.

To mark the anticipation ahead of time, some state TV networks started a countdown to the event from Monday, and Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti said on Tuesday morning that the speech could be “historic”.

This year, the Kremlin banned the media from “unfriendly” countries, including the US, the UK and those in the EU.