From the Liveblog of
Friday, March 18, 2022
Russian state TV cuts off Putin speech mid-sentence
Russian state television cuts President Vladimir Putin’s speech mid-sentence as he addresses tens of thousands of supporters at Moscow’s main football stadium.
As the Russian leader addresses the crowds, state television switches to showing a clip of patriotic music from earlier in the event.
Putin was cut mid-sentence as he was saying: “It so happened that the beginning of the operation coincided by chance with the birthday of one of our outstanding military…”
Russian state television is tightly controlled and such interruptions are highly unusual.
The Kremlin later says that the broadcast was “interrupted due to technical problems on the server.”
Around 10 minutes later, state television replays Putin’s speech from start to finish before he walks off stage.
Putin was speaking at an event in support of the Russian army in Ukraine and to mark the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Transmission of Putin’s speech suddenly cuts. Funny business with Russian TV. Kremlin can’t help itself. pic.twitter.com/VrT9SMOonO
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 18, 2022
