Failure to make that fact clear only plays into Putin’s hands. The West’s war is with Putin, and with Putin alone. With Putin either impotent, powerless, or-better yet-gone, Russia’s rationale for the war in Ukraine and conflict with the West fades. In the days leading up to the May 9 parade, the West must amplify their message that Russia’s problem is an increasingly desperate and reckless President. Putin will likely use his bully pulpit threaten nuclear conflict and hope the subsequent uproar will overshadow his implementation of a deeply unpopular and disruptive national mobilization.īut it is only an increasingly impotent Putin-not Russia-that is locked in a mortal struggle with the West. A constant showman, in the brief moment he holds the public stage, Putin will do everything possible to build upon the myth that Russia and the West are locked in a mortal struggle. Putin’s public speech in Red Square offers the Russian President his best-and potentially final-chance for preserving his own survival. Putin, not Russia, started the Ukraine invasion.Ī last, desperate play at the dice makes sense. While the parade won’t have quite the drama of Joseph Stalin’s desperate 1941 march from the Red Square parade ground into battle, Putin will certainly try to follow Stalin’s playbook by appealing to the “Russian Motherland” and shifting blame for his current debacle back on the “West”.Īt the May 9 parade, Putin may even declare the symbolic start of World War III, muddying the fact that the West’s irritation starts and ends with Putin himself. There’s nothing left for Putin but an appeal to Russian nationalism and Russian nihilism.
#VICTORY DAY 2022 FULL#
Their assets are under threat, and as they race to hide their yachts and foreign families, their corrosive efforts to promote corruption are on full display.Įven Russia’s big cadre of espionage-oriented diplomats are being thinned out, thrown out of their host countries and sent home. Oligarchs, the showy public agents of Russia’s economy, are on the run. Instead, his international cadre of pro-authoritarian agitators are watching their funding and influence crumble away. His goal of using Ukraine as a springboard for an authoritarian resurgence in France, Canada and beyond has failed.
Putin’s “strong-man” appeal-his government of choice-has fallen short to Ukraine’s cohesion around an unexpectedly tough, democratically-elected everyman.
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