No ice hockey match in Moscow’s Red Square on New Year’s Eve and message to parliament postponed until next year. After canceling the traditional big end-of-year press conference, Vladimir Putin renounces or postpones his other traditional appointments in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Putin’s last speech to Parliament was in April 2021, but it won’t be done in 2022, even if the Russian Constitution requires it to take place once a year. “As for news that it could unfold next year, it is undoubtedly possible. It is a rather obvious truth,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Tass. Peskov rejected speculation about a possible message in written form. “It doesn’t happen in written form,” he said.
The ice hockey exhibition has also been cancelled. “No, it’s not planned for this year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked if Putin would participate in the match that the hockey league organizes on New Year’s Eve.
Last year the match took place in St. Petersburg and Putin took to the ice rink together with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, while in previous years the Kremlin leader had not failed to play in the match on Moscow’s Red Square.
Two days ago the Kremlin announced that there would be no traditional end-of-year press conference for the first time in ten years. British intelligence later commented that “Putin may have decided not to hold the traditional year-end press conference so as not to show dissatisfaction with the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine”.
“While questions for the press conference are almost certainly screened in advance, the cancellation of the event appears to be related to concerns about growing anti-war sentiment in Russia. The Kremlin is likely to be deeply concerned that any event involving Putin could be accompanied by controversy,” noted London intelligence.
