Putin blames 'Anglo-Saxons' for Nord Stream blasts
In the speech he made before signing the decree to annex Ukraine’s partially-occupied territories into Russia on Friday, Vladimir Putin blamed “the Anglo-Saxons” for carrying out the attacks that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea earlier this week. Other parts of Putin’s speech suggest he was referring first and foremost to the U.S.
Putin also characterized Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian territories as irreversible.
We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately stop firing, to stop all military activity [and] the war they unleashed in 2014, and return to the negotiating table. We’re ready for this. [...] But we won’t be discussing the choice made by people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. It’s been made. Russia won’t give it up.