When Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Russian people during his annual speech to the nation last February, his war in Ukraine was losing steam. Three months before his speech, Russian forces withdrew from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, despite Putin declaring the region (along with Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia) part of the Russian Federation. In September 2022, the Russian army was caught unprepared, undermanned, and under-equipped as Ukrainian forces pressed a blitzkrieg-like counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. Putin didn't mince words, calling the war a "difficult, watershed period for our country."

That was then. This is now.

Putin stepped into the cavernous auditorium this week to address his people again, in a better, but still not great, position.

This year's speech showcased vintage Putin and contained everything that the most bullish Kremlin propagandist could hope for. The entire event was long-winded, boring, and full of the usual unsubstantiated claims about Ukraine being run by a Nazi cabal. At one point, Putin rattled his nuclear saber yet again, warning the United States and its NATO allies that they shouldn't dare to get more deeply involved in the war on Ukraine's behalf, unless it wanted to raise the probability of a Russian nuclear escalation.

Russia's opponents, he said, "must ... realize that we too have weapons that can hit targets on their territory"—weapons that could blow up the Earth a few times over.........

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