In a rambling speech overnight, the Russian president has gone on television to take aim at Russians who don’t back the invasion.
Vladimir Putin said Russians “will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths”.
He accused the West of using a “fifth column” of traitorous Russians to create civil unrest, adding: “And there is only one goal, I have already spoken about it — the destruction of Russia.”
Mr Putin continued: “I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country.”
He also hit out at Russian oligarchs living in the West, saying: “I am not at all judging those who have a villa in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot do without foie gras, oysters or so-called gender freedoms.
“The problem is absolutely not in this, but, I repeat, in the fact that many of these people, by their very nature, are mentally located precisely there, and not here, not with our people, not with Russia.
“This is what they think – in their opinion – a sign of belonging to a higher caste, to a higher race.”
This could be a sign of the Russian president planning to tighten his authoritarian rule, after the government began shutting down news outlets and arresting protesters.
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