MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s State of the Nation Address may take place after February 20, a source in the Russian State Duma, or lower parliament house, told TASS on Monday.
"The [president’s] state of the nation address can be expected on February 20 or 21," the source said.
Another well-informed source told TASS that it is highly likely that the president will deliver his annual address to the national parliament after February 20.
Putin delivered his previous State of the Nation Address in April 2021. He skipped 2022 because of the rapidly developing situation. As he explained, "it was a bit hard to pinpoint at any given time the results and specific plans for the near term." He noted that issues that could have been included in the address have been raised in some of his other speeches and promised to address the national parliament in early 2023.
Putin’s State of the Nation Addresses are typically delivered every year but exceptions have occurred. For example, the 2017 address was postponed to March 1, 2018. Sergey Kiriyenko, the then first deputy head of the presidential administration, said back then that a State of the Nation Address is a president’s right and the president is free to exercise it "whenever he deems it necessary.".