Putin’s big speech
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent speech in Red Square would normally have been seen as an effort to throw down the gauntlet, if not for the fact that the war in Ukraine is still ongoing. Putin was speaking at an event celebrating Victory Day, which marks the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. He claimed a “war” had been unleashed against Russia, although even Russia’s closest allies accept that Putin’s forces fired the first shot. He also said Russia had “rebuffed international terrorism” despite what foreign media is referring to as an “unprecedented” rise in attacks on Russian soil, allegedly backed by state and non-state rivals of the Putin regime.
For all of the boisterous speech, the real state of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s military may have been exposed by the parade. While Victory Day parades normally feature several tanks and other modern equipment, this week’s parade only included one tank. Although the official explanation for the lack of most modern equipment and weaponry was “security reasons”, it still made for terrible optics when Kyiv and the West are already claiming that the Russian army is losing tanks at an astounding pace in Ukraine.
Another concern for Putin became obvious after the “Immortal March” was cancelled. The annual parade takes place in cities and towns across the country and features common citizens marching through the streets while displaying photos of their relatives who fought in WWII. Moscow was apparently afraid of relatives of men killed in action in Ukraine attempting to disrupt the march — Russia admits to 22,000 killed, including paramilitary forces, but independent estimates begin at 40,000 killed and run up to “over 200,000 killed and wounded”.
It is clear that the big talk is a cover for the lack of a face-saving resolution, because however Putin tries to play it, he has not taken Russia to greatness, but only emulated the big mistake of the ‘great’ US and Soviet militaries of the past decades — underestimating an indigenous force being armed to the teeth by another superpower.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 11th, 2023.
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