Categories: Daniel Serwer

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).

Daniel Serwer

Share
Published by
Daniel Serwer

Recent Posts

People are not pleased but it will get worse

He wants an America swollen with racial prejudice and isolated from the world. Half the…

3 hours ago

Okay, but still a long way to go

Is this a revival of the 1920s and 1930s America that tried to limit immigration,…

2 days ago

Hope is where the wild things are

Hope lies wherever the restraining and suffocating writ of the Trump Administration does not extend.…

4 days ago

America made a giant mistake

It will take more time for Americans to fathom the mistake they have made. But…

1 week ago

Serbia is going backwards

I received this plea today. The issues are not new but now the situation is…

2 weeks ago

Might doesn’t make right, but it’s winning

Trump can't get anything out of Putin because the American President has already given too…

2 weeks ago