Harris, Kursk, Peace Talks – Key Points from Putin’s Eastern Economic Forum Speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin is pushing to occupy the entirety of Ukraine’s Donbas region, claimed that Kyiv weakened its defense by attacking Kursk, and surprisingly, voiced his support for US Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris – perhaps with a hint of irony.

Speaking to an audience at Thursday’s Eastern Economic Forum, in the far eastern port city of Vladivostok, Putin claimed he was open to peace talks, a notion some Russian officials recently described as “impossible” after the Kursk incursion.

Here are the key takeaways from Putin’s speech.

Kursk vs Donbas

Putin said Russia aims to capture the entirety of Ukraine’s industrial Donetsk and Luhansk regions – colloquially known as the Donbas region – and claimed that Ukraine’s ongoing Kursk incursion, which started on Aug. 6 and took Moscow by surprise, has done little to stop his goal.

“The aim of the enemy (in Kursk) was to force us to worry, hustle, divert troops and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in the Donbas, the liberation of which is our main primary objective,” Putin said.

Moscow claims to have annexed the Donbas region alongside other Ukrainian regions where it held illegal referendums in September 2022.

Toward that goal, the Russians aim to capture Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the Donbas. Ukraine described the situation there as “extremely difficult” in a recent statement. 

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Putin claimed that Kyiv had weakened itself with the Kursk incursion.

“Our armed forces have stabilized the situation and started gradually squeezing (the enemy) out from our territory … It is the holy duty of the Russian army to do everything to throw out the enemy from this territory and to protect our citizens,” he proclaimed.

At the time of publication, Ukraine captured more than 1,100 square kilometers (425 square miles) in its Kursk incursion, with the front line becoming mostly static over the past week, with no significant gains or losses from the Ukrainian side.

Peace talks?

Putin said Moscow has “never refused” negotiations with Ukraine, rolling back on Russian officials’ earlier statements that peace talks wouldn’t be possible due to Ukraine’s Kursk incursion.

“Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so, but not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initiated in Istanbul,” said Putin, referring to the negotiations in Istanbul in spring 2022.

A Kyiv Post analysis covered the scope of the early peace negotiations in detail.

Putin’s proposed peace talks would require Kyiv to relinquish control over Russian-occupied territories, and at least in earlier negotiations, the possibility of joining the EU and NATO – the majority of which Kyiv had described as non-starters.

Potentially Ironic Support for Harris

In a surprising statement, Putin said he supports US Vice President and Democratic Nominee Harris in the upcoming November election – likely with a hint of irony.

“Firstly, [US President Joe] Biden recommended all his supporters support Mrs. Harris. Here, we are going to do that too, we’re going to support her,” Putin told the audience with a wry smile, as reported by AFP.

“She laughs so contagiously that it shows that everything is fine with her,” he added.

He then went on to claim Republican nominee Donald Trump “imposed as many sanctions” as other US presidents during his tenure and said Harris might behave differently, despite the fact that Harris’s tenure as vice president has witnessed record numbers of Russian sanctions – 500 alone in February this year – in relation to Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

“(Former US President Donald) Trump has imposed as many sanctions on Russia as any president has ever imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from such actions,” Putin said.

Previously, Putin claimed to have favored Biden over Trump as Biden was more “predictable” before he dropped out of the race and nominated Harris instead.

However, Putin’s statement on Trump is likely untrue.

A report compiled by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in 2021, after Trump’s presidency, said “the rate of new sanctions on Russia slowed but took on a broader focus” under Trump, dropping from 458 entities under his predecessor Barack Obama to 273.

In June this year, the Biden administration targeted more than 300 new entities and people “whose products and services enable Russia to sustain its war effort and evade sanctions.”