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"We are urged to exert influence on the self-defense fighters of the southeast. Let me repeat again, we’ll of course do everything that is in our power," he said. "But that won't be enough."

That looks like Putin is looking for ways to extricate Russia from its messy involvement in post-revolutionary Ukraine, and particularly the increasingly out-of-control eastern rebels, says Dmitry Oreshkin, head of the Mercator Group, a Moscow-based media consultancy.

"All attempts to support rebellion in eastern Ukraine have failed. There is no small victorious war down there," just a growing disaster, he says. "I think Putin wants to be rid of that, and concentrate all Russia's political efforts on defending its annexation of Crimea last March. Basically, this is an effort by Putin to save face," he adds.

"Most of Putin's speech was directed at an internal audience, and leaving aside his worries about 'colored revolutions' it was mostly an appeal to reason," he says.

It was primarily a message for all the various factions around Putin to drop their differences and get behind disengagement in Ukraine and conciliation with the West, because the only alternative – "Plan B" – is something very few members of the Russian elite would actually want: "That would be to close the doors and accept a state of maximum isolation for Russia," Mr. Pavlovsky says.