On Friday, March 18, in Moscow, at the Luzhniki sports arena, an event called “a rally-concert in honor of the Day of the reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with Russia” was held. The event, as reported by the Russian media, was initiated by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. There were 95,000 people directly in Luzhniki, and about 100 more were outside.
Vladimir Mashkov, Dmitry Pevtsov, Polina Gagarina, Grigory Leps, the Ruki Vverkh group, Timati, Nikolai Rastorguev and the Lyube group, as well as other artists spoke from the stage before the audience.
After the concert, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke. During the speech, he was alone on the stage.
During his speech, the official broadcast was suddenly interrupted, Meduza reports. Putin’s speech was interrupted by the words “it so happened that the beginning of the operation coincided, coincidentally coincided, with the birthday of one of our outstanding …”. After that, the broadcast included the performance of Oleg Gazmanov with the song “Forward, Russia!”, which took place earlier.
Before the broadcast was interrupted, Putin managed to say that Russia “did a lot to raise Crimea and Sevastopol” and that they needed to be pulled out of the humiliating state in which they were part of Ukraine.
He also noted that the purpose of the “special operation” in Ukraine is “to save people from genocide” and quoted the Gospel of John: “There is no more love, as if someone gave his soul for his friends.”
After Putin finished his speech, the event was declared over.
A few minutes later, Putin’s speech was broadcast again, this time in its entirety. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the cause of the incident was a “technical failure on the server.”