What to expect from Putin's Address to Federal Assembly on September 30?

Putin's Annual Address to the Federal Assembly is scheduled for September 30. Kremlin sources say it will become even more historic and globally important than the 2014 address for the return of Crimea.

Mass media and experts make their own suggestions about the content of Putin's speech that he is going to deliver to the Federal Assembly on September 30.

There are a number of versions:

• summing up the results of the referendums,
• announcement of full or partial martial law,
• ultimatum to Ukraine and the West,
• announcement of Union-2.0 with Belarus and new regions,
• declaring war on a country
• announcing the need to switch the country to military economic and political footing.

By September 30, the results of referendums in the Donbas, Kherson and Zaporozhye (Zaporizhzhia) regions will be summed up. The administrations of the new territories and Russia will then work on the legal registration of the procedure for making these states become part of Russia as was previously the case of Crimea.

The only difference is that Crimea had clearly defined borders before and after the referendum, whereas the current candidates for the status of a subject of the Russian Federation do not have full control of their former administrative borders.

In addition, the issue of Russia's new borders is also important because the occupation by foreign (Ukrainian) troops of the territory of Russia (according to the law "On martial law") is a sign of external aggression. This reason serves as the basis for the implementation of martial law.

What experts expect from Putin's 2022 Address

"The situation is very complicated and difficult, in my opinion. Russia is facing a colossal challenge right now, and it appears to me that Putin is going to say that "our country is in danger." It appears to me that one needs to set up a state defense committee that would switch the entire economy to different tracks," Leonid Krutakov, a political scientist, publicist, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of Russia, told Pravda.Ru.

"You can't fight the whole world or the West at the time when all your economic entities inside the country act as counterparties of the enemy - the global market based on the Western model. No matter how successful our actions at the front are, we will be crushed both mentally and economically. Therefore, it is this message that I would like to hear from the president," the expert said.

"When Crimea returned to Russia, I said that we must not stop, we need to resolve the issue globally. When the Minsk agreements were concluded, I said that it was a mistake, that we had to go to Kyiv, because the Ukrainian army was not ready. It was impossible to leave this issue suspended," Leonid Krutakov believes. "I would like to hear the president talking about decisive measures, about the future of the country," the expert added.

Russia at crossroads: Escalation or compromise

"Today, the Russian administration is at a crossroads: we can either follow the path of further escalation to achieve the goals of the special operation, or think about a compromise with the West and Ukraine. I believe it's too early to talk about the resumption of dialogue,” Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian Council for Foreign Affairs, told Pravda.Ru.

"I think that in his speech Putin will announce measures that could come long such topics as partial call up and the referenda. There is also the deepening of the current crisis in relations between Russia and the West. The above "options" are indeed present, but we do not know yet how far the Russian leader is ready to go on the path of escalation," the expert said.