Thread by @anders_aslund

Putin's victory day march & speech are interesting in many ways.
1. It looks so obsolete. Everybody is old & so is the style & military equipment.
2. The only foreign leader present is Tajikistan's Soviet-style dictator Emomali Rahmon.

3. The allies are not even mentioned. The USSR did it all alone (news).
4. Putin carefully avoids falling into Russian ethnic or religious nationalism, clarifying: "People of all ethnicities and faiths fought for every inch of our soil." His nationalism is imperial.

5. A novelty is an implicit parallel between the Nazis & the West. Putin: "An enemy attacked our country and invaded our land to kill and to spread death and pain, horror and immeasurable suffering."
en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

6. Putin: "This enemy not only wanted to overthrow the Soviet political system but also to destroy us as a state, as a nation and wipe our peoples off the face of the earth."

7. Putin ties it together: "The slogans of racial and ethnic supremacy, anti-Semitism and Russophobia were becoming more and more cynical."

8. Without saying so directly, Putin associates the West with the Nazis again:
"Unfortunately, attempts are made to deploy a large part of Nazi ideology and the ideas of those who were obsessed with the delusional theory of their own supremacy."

9. Not going into Russia's violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity, FSB & GRU death squads, Putin concludes:
"Russia is consistently defending international law while continuing to protect our national interests and the security of our people."
Putin has taken a big new step