Vladimir Putin dons a £10,000 Loro Piana jacket which is worth 25 times the average monthly Russian’s monthly salary at huge pro-war rally
- Putin wore the luxury jacket worth 1.5million Russian roubles for Moscow rally
- Western companies have closed their shops in Russia amid global sanctions
- The jacket costs more than double the average Russian’s annual salary
Vladimir Putin raged against the West and boasted he was fighting for the ‘universal values’ of all Russians today while wearing a £10,000 designer jacket as his citizens face a return to Soviet-era poverty.
The leader gave a rousing speech to tens of thousands of supports in Moscow’s Luzhniki World Cup stadium where he lauded the success of his ‘special military operation’ that has seen hospitals, schools and homes bombed to oblivion.
The strongman, 69, donned a Loro Piana jacket worth nearly 1.5million Russian roubles, equivalent to around £10,200.
Vladimir Putin raged against the West and boasted he was fighting for the ‘universal values’ of all Russians today while wearing a £10,000 designer jacket
The strongman, 69, donned a Loro Piana jacket worth nearly 1.5million Russian roubles, equivalent to around £10,200
Vladimir Putin has today given a tub-thumping address to tens of thousands of Russians gathered at Moscow’s world cup stadium, celebrating his invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and drumming up support for his new war
In 2021, the average Russian’s annual salary was 678,000 roubles, less than half the cost of the strongman’s coat.
Now, the average Russian is in an even worse financial state with the country’s economy crumbling under the weight of Western sanctions.
Many designer shops have closed their doors in Russia, but Putin was still able to get his hands on the luxury Italian coat as the country’s economy crashed to record lows following his barbaric invasion.
Annual inflation in Russia accelerated to 12.54 per cent as of March 11 which is set to hammer living standards under Putin’s regime.
In 2021, the average Russian’s annual salary was 678,000 roubles, less than half the cost of the strongman’s coat
Yulia Shimelevich, a 55-year-old French tutor in Moscow, said after Western sanctions were imposed: ‘My life has already collapsed.
‘All the luxuries that we had grown accustomed to in recent years – imported products and clothes – are already in the past.
‘The hardest part will not be tightening our belts… but separation from my son and a feeling of guilt in front of the whole world.’
Putin has sold the economic sanctions as an opportunity for Russia to produce its own goods.
During his speech today, Putin continued to peddle debunked claims about why the war started and shilled a false narrative of Russia’s battlefield ‘success’.
Putin spoke in front of a crowd tens of thousands strong at the Luzhniki World Cup stadium in Moscow, one of the few times he has been seen in public since launching his invasion 23 days ago
Putin used the rally to peddle falsehoods about why the war started and to shill a narrative of Russia’s battlefield success, speaking of ‘how our guys are fighting during this operation, shoulder to shoulder, helping each other’
The despot took to the stage to address a crowd waving Russian national flags and banners marked with the letter ‘Z’, which has become a potent symbol of the invasion.
Putin, who called the rally to mark the anniversary of the last time he attacked Ukraine to annex the Crimea region, spoke of sharing a ‘common destiny’ with Crimeans, of ‘de-Nazifying’ the region in 2014, and of the ‘bravery’ of soldiers currently fighting in Ukraine. He was met with chants of ‘Russia, Russia, Russia.’
Speaking in front of banners that read ‘For a world without Nazism’ and ‘For Russia’ – with the letter ‘Z’ in each picked out in bold – he said: ‘Sevastopol [capital of Crimea] did the right thing when they put up a barrier to neo-Nazis and radicals, which is already happening on other territories.
‘[The] people of Donbass also disagreed with this, and straight-away they organised military operations against [the Nazis]. They were surrounded and shelled by guns, the Ukrainians sent airstrikes against them. This is called genocide,’ he said, repeating his widely-debunked justification for attacking.
Putin fans in the crowd were seen waving banners emblazoned with the letter ‘Z’, which has been adopted as a symbol of the invasion and the Kremlin’s wider aim of restoring national pride through conquest
Putin called the rally to mark the eighth anniversary of ‘annexing’ Crimea, speaking of ‘de-Nazifying’ the peninsula and of debunked claims of ‘genocide’ in the Donbass
A Russian man gestures towards the stage during a rally in Moscow’s World Cup stadium to support Putin’s war on Ukraine, even as his armed forces shell civilian areas of cities
‘It is to save people from this suffering and genocide that we launched our military operation.’
Putin then praised troops taking part in his ‘special operation’, who he said are fighting for the ‘universal values’ of all Russians. The words ‘we don’t abandon our own’ were emblazoned on screens around the stadium. Paraphrasing the Bible, he said: ‘There is no greater love than giving up one’s soul for one’s friends.
‘The best confirmation of this is how our guys are fighting during this operation, shoulder to shoulder, helping each other. When it is necessary, they cover each-other as if it was their own brother from bullets. We haven’t had such unity in a long time,’ he said.
But a bizarre moment in the speech came when Putin suddenly disappeared from news feeds in mid-sentence – replaced by a band that was mid-way through singing, perhaps suggesting his address was not broadcast live.
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