But political problems were left aside, but the social sphere came to the fore.
Sergey Shnurov, general producer of RTVI, noted that President Putin in his message played like a chess player and departed from the expectations of the liberal and illiberal public:
- It seemed to me that he played quite skillfully, as a chess player. He did not touch on any of the topics that were expected of him, he went away from the expectations of the liberal and illiberal public. Everyone hoped that there would be some loud statements, almost a declaration of war and the beginning of repressions. But he did not touch on political topics at all and chose the direction that interests, in the main, the majority of the population of Russia. Over a protest electorate of hundreds of thousands, he chose an electorate of millions. Previous messages were even sharper. I would call this message a social one, directed towards the interior of the country. He was interested in the life of Russia inside, not outside. Here, just, all sensitive topics were postponed. I do not know what is happening in the offices, but the tone itself was completely different. Compared to previous years, social issues were highlighted and the message has great electoral potential.
The message was structured in such a way that it extinguishes all this wave and says: "Guys, let's get down to social problems, not political ones". Moreover, this is in the global trend: "We are leaving the covid, let's put the world back together, go back to the economy, and postpone all the political fuss for later".
The messages are a kind of demonstration. We need to consider everything as a performance: they want to show us all something, and we need to understand that there is a great director's idea. I believe that this message and this rhyme with Lukashenka are impeccable. Made up greatly.
Note that this message is completely asymmetrical. Putin has neither a request nor an answer. Navalny's problem was not covered at all. And thus we are shown that this problem does not seem to exist. So I think it won't end with anything. There will be some small detentions, there will be no mass protests, all this will come to naught.