The Kremlin on Friday confirmed a report that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will give his long-delayed 2022 annual address to the Federal Assembly on February 21, 2023, a date chosen to coincide with the anniversary of his attack on Ukraine.
The address is reportedly to be followed up with a “large-scale concert and rally event at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium” the next day.
Russian media quoted sources in the Kremlin and Federal Assembly who said the rally, billed as a “continuation” of nationalist themes Putin will strike in the address, will have an estimated 200,000 attendees.
Putin is required under the Russian constitution to address the Federal Assembly once per year, but he has not done so since April 2021.
“On February 21, the President of the Russian Federation will address the Federal Assembly,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Friday.
February 21 is the anniversary of the day Putin unilaterally created two “independent republics” on…
