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Putin laments “serious blunders” in top general’s killing, says he’ll meet Trump “any time” on Ukraine war
Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies over the Ukraine-orchestrated killing of a senior general in Moscow. Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s chemical and biological weapons unit, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter in Moscow on Tuesday, the boldest assassination claimed by Kyiv since the start of the conflict.
“Our special services are missing these hits. They missed these hits. It means we need to improve this work. We must not allow such very serious blunders to happen,” Putin said at his end-of-year press conference, addressing a string of attacks inside Russia on high-profile Kremlin backers amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has been linked to previous attacks in Russia, including the August 2022 car bombing of nationalist Darya Dugina and an explosion in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023 that killed high-profile military correspondent Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky.
Putin was addressing the killing of Kirillov for the first time, more than 48 hours after the blast in a residential part of the Russian capital. Questions have been asked in Moscow about the security protocols for such a high-ranking and public figure involved in the military offensive on Ukraine.
Maxim Shemetov/REUTERS
Kyiv claimed responsibility for the attack, saying explosives were packed into an electric scooter left by the door of a residential building.
When Kirillov and his assistant left the building, it detonated, killing them both.
Russia has detained an Uzbek citizen born in 1995, suspected of carrying out the attack, the Investigative Committee said Wednesday.
It claimed he said he had been “recruited by Ukrainian special forces.”
Putin on Thursday called the attack “terrorism”.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU security services called Kirillov a “legitimate target” and has accused him of being behind the mass use of banned chemical weapons on the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
Putin says he’ll meet Trump “any time” about Ukraine
Putin said Thursday he was ready for talks “any time” with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has touted his ability to strike a Ukraine peace deal within hours of coming to office.
Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has stoked fears in Kyiv that he could force Ukraine to accept peace on terms favourable to Moscow.
Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS
Holding his annual end-of-year press conference, the Kremlin leader said his troops held the upper hand across the battlefield, but was forced to admit he does not know when Russia will take back the western Kursk region where Ukrainian troops launched an incursion in August.
The traditional annual question and answer sessions, often lasting hours, are largely a televised show while also being a rare setting in which he is put on the spot and answers some uncomfortable questions.
Asked about Trump’s overtures regarding a possible peace deal, Putin said he would welcome a meeting with the incoming Republican.
“I don’t know when I’m going to see him. He isn’t saying anything about it. I haven’t talked to him in more than four years. I am ready for it, of course. Any time,” Putin said.
“If we ever have a meeting with President-elect Trump, I am sure we’ll have a lot to talk about,” he said, adding that Russia was ready for “negotiations and compromises.”
The Kremlin recently welcomed Trump’s sharp criticism of President Biden’s decision to allow Kyiv to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike Russian territory — a major escalation in the nearly three-year conflict that Mr. Biden’s administration said was necessitated by Putin drafting in thousands of North Korean soldiers to bolster his own ground forces.
Russia’s troops have been advancing in eastern Ukraine for months, with Putin repeatedly touting their prowess on the battlefield.
“We are moving towards resolving the primary aims that we set at the start of the special military operation,” Putin said, using Russia’s term for the conflict. “Our guys are fighting heroically. The capabilities of the armed forces are growing.”
Moscow’s army in November advanced at its fastest pace in east Ukraine since the first month of its 2022 attack.
But asked by a woman from the Kursk region when residents will be able to return to their homes there, after thousands were evacuated from frontline areas amid the Ukrainian assault, Putin said he could not name a date.
“We will absolutely kick them out. Absolutely. It can’t be any other way. But the question of a specific date, I’m sorry, I cannot say right now,” he admitted.
Putin challenges West to shoot down powerful new Russian missile
Putin appeared to repeat his threat to strike Kyiv with Russia’s powerful new multiple-warhead ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik. Russia has touted the Oreshnik as a hypersonic weapon virtually impossible to intercept, but an official at the U.S. Defense Department told CBS News it was assessed to be a variant of Russia’s existing RS-26 rocket, an “experimental” intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM.
Asked Thursday by a military journalist if the weapon had any flaws, Putin suggested a “high-tech duel” between the West and Russia to test his claims that it is impervious to air defenses.
“Let them set some target to be hit, let’s say in Kyiv. They will concentrate there all their air defenses. And we will launch an Oreshnik strike there and see what happens,” Putin proposed.
Assad’s ouster in Syria no “defeat” for Russia, Putin says
In his first public comments since the fall of ex-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Putin rejected claims that his toppling was a “defeat” for Russia.
“You want to present what is happening in Syria as a defeat for Russia,” Putin said in response to a question from a journalist. “I assure you it is not… we have achieved our goals.”
Putin said he has not yet met Assad, who fled to Moscow as rebels closed in on Damascus, but plans to soon.
MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty
Putin came to Assad’s rescue more than once over the course of the grueling civil war in Syria, and he stands to lose a significant military foothold in the volatile Middle East with his long-time ally now decisively out of power.
Putin says Russia’s economy “stable, despite external threats”
Putin was also pressed Thursday on the economic headwinds facing Russia — the fallout from a huge ramp up in military spending and deep labor shortages caused by the conflict.
He insisted that the situation was “stable, despite external threats,” citing low unemployment and industrial growth.
Asked about soaring inflation, Putin said that “inflation is a worrying signal,” and that price rises for foods such as butter and meat were “unpleasant.”
He acknowledged that Western sanctions were also a factor — “while they do not have key significance” — and criticized his country’s central bank, saying it should have taken measures beyond raising rates to lower inflation.
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Actor Danny Masterson, who is serving a sentence of 30 years to life in prison, is seeking to overturn his conviction for the rape of two women, with his attorneys arguing he did not receive a fair trial.
A Los Angeles jury found Masterson guilty last year of two counts of rape by force or fear for assaulting two women at his Hollywood Hills home in separate incidents in 2003 — during the same time he was starring on the Fox TV’s “That ’70s Show.” The jury deadlocked on the case involving a third alleged victim. The May 2023 trial followed a mistrial in November 2022.
Masterson, 48, is incarcerated at California Men’s Colony, a minimum- and medium-security prison in San Luis Obispo County.
Cliff Gardner, the attorney handling Masterson’s appeal, filed an appellant’s opening brief Tuesday that alleges witnesses told different versions of their stories over time. The brief also argues that evidence that would have helped Masterson’s defense was not presented due to what Gardner describes as erroneous rulings by the court. Gardner argues in the court filings that those factors support reversing the convictions.
LUCY NICHOLSON / Getty Images
Masterson’s defense argued at trial that he knew both women socially and his sexual relations with them were consensual.
“It is true, of course, that a defendant is not entitled to a perfect trial. He is, however, still entitled to a fair one,” the brief reads. “Danny Masterson received neither. Reversal is required.”
During the trial, one of the women Masterson was later convicted of raping broke down on the witness stand as she testified that he choked her and smothered her with a pillow when she tried fighting back as he assaulted her, according to the Associated Press.
“I could not breathe,” she said, crying.
When the prosecutor asked what she was thinking at the time, she said she feared for her life, AP reported.
“That he was going to kill me,” she said. “That I was going to die.”
She later testified Masterson took out a gun from inside his bedside table and told her to be quiet when they heard voices at the door. She told jurors she was in and out of consciousness through the night.
Masterson and the victims were members of the Church of Scientology, which became a central focus of the case as the women alleged they were stalked and harassed after reporting the allegations to police.
They sued Masterson and the church years earlier in connection with those accusations.
During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told jurors the church had retaliated against the victims for reporting the the crimes — the rape of a 28-year-old woman in April 2003 and assault of a 23-year-old woman, also that year.
“What happened after they were drugged, they were raped by this man over here,” Mueller said, as he pointed across the courtroom toward Masterson during closing arguments. “You have an opportunity to show there is justice. It does exist.”
The church released a statement at the time refuting the allegations.
“The church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone, Scientologists or not, to law enforcement,” the statement reads. “Quite the opposite, church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land. All allegations to the contrary are totally false.”
In the newly filed brief for Masterson’s appeal, Gardner alleges the victims changed their stories “dramatically” over the years and had a financial motive to do so. Gardner argues in court documents that though the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit seeking damages had expired before the trial, under state law it would be revived if Masterson was convicted of forcible rape involving multiple victims.
Gardner says in the brief that a court ruling prevented evidence related to that argument from being admitted at trial.
He also states in the court filings that some witnesses died before the case went to trial, more than a decade after being reported to law enforcement, and alleges that police lost a tape-recorded witness interview that would have helped Masterson’s defense.
After the six-day trial resulting in Masterson’s convictions, one of the women he was convicted of raping released a statement saying she was relieved he had been found guilty.
“I am experiencing a complex array of emotions – relief, exhaustion, strength, sadness – knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behavior,” said a statement from one of the women whom Masterson was convicted of raping at his home in 2003.
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