Stevenson’s army, May 9
– Signal has this summary of Putin’s Victory Day speech:
In the end, Russian President Vladimir Putin threw the experts for a loop again.
In his Victory Day speech in Moscow a few hours ago, he didn’t formally declare war on Ukraine, announce a general mobilization, or claim even a partial victory in the conflict. In fact, he didn’t utter the word “Ukraine” a single time. Rather, he framed the conflict as a justified Russian response not only to a threat posed by the “neo-Nazis” in Kyiv and their NATO backers but also to 30 years of broader mistreatment at the hands of a decadent and hostile West. In perhaps the only real clue about Moscow’s intentions, he called the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine “our land” but didn’t mention any other parts of the country.
In the end, this was a cautious speech, one meant to bolster Russian support for continued action in Ukraine, but without raising the stakes too high too soon for the Russian public. Of course, Putin still can declare a mobilization or a war anytime he likes.
– In the New Yorker, Jill Lepore hits originalism by noting other missing words.
– FP writer warns of India’s delusions.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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