Simultaneous interpretation on this video of Putin's address to the nation, which has just begun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjMnTo85S4A

Putin has just said the only explanation for Russia's bizarre territorial generosity to the Ukraine between the Lenin and Khrushchev eras was the Bolshevik determination to stay in power.
Those of us who've read Anthony Sutton have the paper trail indicating that this means "the determination of the City of London and Wall Street that the Bolsheviks stay in power".

RT uses very good simultaneous interpreters—Russia trains more of them than any other country—but the Russian school of interpreter training emphasises working out of Russian into English, rather than working into one's native language (as in Western European interpreter schools).
Consequently, the young man doing the Putin speech right now has come out with a couple of corkers, including "a policy of autonomity" and "the Soviet Union was a Unitarian state".

Putin has just gloated that "Russia will be only too glad to show the Ukrainians the decommunisation for which they cry". I suspect he means "kicking out the Western bankers that impose communisation from age to age".

This is an astonishing Putin speech. He is unambiguously repudiating Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev—which can only mean he's ready to break with every Western financial institution.

As an idea of how big Russia is, it's 9 pm right now in Kaliningrad and 8 am in Kamchatka.

Putin just used the remarkable phrase "awake to the virus of corruption", describing Ukrainians' awareness of the oligarch battles.

"We cannot but shudder when we think of those burned alive in Odessa, who still go unpunished"—Putin

"Ukraine has failed to attain stable statehood"—Putin

Putin is just reeling off about a dozen big names in Ukrainian industry that have gone bankrupt or are teetering on the brink. "Is that what their 'pro-Western choice' means?"

"Foreign consultants and a network of NGOs have control of all decisions in the Ukraine, from central government down to town councils and ports. And the Ukraine has no judicial independence any more; the USA directly controls the national anti-corruption agency. Yet the corruption is worse than ever it was. Do the Ukrainians even realise they are now a colony headed by puppets?"—Putin

"The Ukrainians have been induced to come up with such instruments as individual sanctions against their own citizens, even parliamentarians, and they are persecuting the Church"—Putin

"Patriotic sentiment in the Ukraine has been stripped of its national character and is tending to undo the nation's sovereignty"—Putin

"From 2014, the USA alone has transferred billions of dollars to weaponise the Ukraine ceaselessly before the eyes of the entire world"—Putin

If i was a Ukrainian politician i would leave now

"There has even been talk—and no idle chatter—about Ukraine developing nuclear weapons"—Putin

"With foreign support, the Ukraine could easily acquire tactical nukes"—Putin

While Putin delivers the speech of the century, Sky News gives you—Where's Whitty?

"Russia cannot but act to prevent the Ukraine from acquiring weapons of mass destruction"—Putin

"The USA and NATO have begun shamelessly turning the Ukraine into a theatre of military conflict"—Putin

"They insist NATO is a peaceful and defensive bloc posing no threat to Russia, and they insist we believe their words; but we have known since 1991 what their words are worth"—Putin