No speech from Putin despite high-profile announcement

Tuesday, 20 September 2022, 23:01

TUESDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2022, 23:01

On the evening of Tuesday, 20 September, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, was expected to make a speech in which he was supposed to announce so-called referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Federal channels even published announcements of the upcoming speech. But after two hours of waiting, they were deleted.

Source: Russian media

Details: Meduza said the announcements were deleted by RT and Pervyi Kanal (First Channel), in particular. Moskovskii Komsomolets, according to Meduza, reported that Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, "was not contactable".

Well-known Russian propagandists Vladimir Solovyov and Margarita Simonyan had to "cancel the event" as well.

At first, both of them posted an intriguing phrase on their Telegram channel - "Are you waiting?", alluding to the hype surrounding Putin’s upcoming speech. But after two hours of waiting, Solovyov posted a short message - "Tomorrow" - while Simonyan told everyone to go to bed.

Telegram channels had also reported that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu might also make a speech on 20 September.

Later, the Telegram channel Baza stated that Putin's speech would be broadcast on Wednesday, between 09:00 and 10:00.

Background:

Russian media announced on 20 September that President Vladimir Putin would be making a speech that evening about the so-called referendums in the occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
On 19 September, the Public Chambers of the "LPR" and "DPR" (the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics) demanded immediate "referendums" on their recognition as federal subjects of the Russian Federation.
Following the Russian-sponsored militants in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, Russian invaders in Kherson Oblast have called for an urgent "referendum" on joining the Russian Federation.
The occupiers plan to hold the pseudo-referendums between 23 and 27 September.

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