May 9 speech: Putin is not escalating, but is he de-escalating?

Created: 05/09/2022, 18:30

By: Georg Anastasiadis

Georg Anastasiadis, Editor-in-Chief of the Münchner Merkur, comments on Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin's speech at the Victory Parade on May 9th.

© Thibault Camus/Pool AP/dpa/Marcus sleep

Russian President Putin sounded surprisingly defensive in his speech at the Victory Day Parade on May 9th.

A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.

Putin loves to do the unexpected, to present himself as the master of surprises.

It is part of the myth of the man who wants to be able to do anything and thereby frightens his opponents.

Measured against this, the Kremlin boss has once again remained true to himself in his propaganda show for May 9th: not a word about the declaration of "total war" or general mobilization, which the self-proclaimed German "peace faction" around Alice Schwarzer in particular already took for granted Had kept.

Instead, he once again served his Russians with the fairy tale of the Nazis in Ukraine, who should be defeated like Hitler's Germany once was.

Putin no longer has to mobilize – he has already achieved his goal (particularly in Germany) of causing parts of Western societies to panic and make them give in or even be willing to capitulate.

But is Putin's refraining from further escalation really to be interpreted as the opposite, i.e. as a sign of de-escalation?

Is he even looking for a face-saving way out of an increasingly difficult situation for him?

One thing is clear: in eastern Ukraine, Russia is engaged in a war of attrition that is dangerous for the president, without any notable gains in territory.

His new narrative, presented yesterday at the Moscow Victory Parade, of a preventive Russian strike, with which the Kremlin chief relabeled his brutal attack as a legitimate defensive war against NATO, fits in with the course of the war, which was disappointing for him.

allegedly about to invade Russia.

This serves above all to justify the so-called “special action” at home, but the Kremlin ruler could also present his compatriots with a later peace treaty renunciation of Ukraine's NATO membership as a war trophy.

It was interesting, however, that yesterday Putin did not renew his claim to all of Ukraine.

Either way, the West should be prepared for new surprises and beware of overly great illusions.

that Putin did not renew his claim to all of Ukraine yesterday.

Either way, the West should be prepared for new surprises and beware of overly great illusions.

that Putin did not renew his claim to all of Ukraine yesterday.

Either way, the West should be prepared for new surprises and beware of overly great illusions.