BBC Online :
Russian President Vladimir Putin is giving his annual state of the nation address, amid heightened tension with the West over Ukraine and jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny.
He has spent more than 30 minutes focusing on Russia’s battle with Covid-19, praising the social solidarity of millions of people in the pandemic.
But in the past Mr Putin has also used the occasion to send signals abroad.
Russia has moved more than 100,000 troops close to Ukraine, reports say.
A large part of that force is in Crimea, the peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. A senior Ukrainian officer, Gen Serhiy Nayev, estimated the total force to be 103,200 last week.
Russia backs the separatists holding a swathe of eastern Ukraine, and its manoeuvres have fuelled fears of a new Russian military intervention.
