Episode description

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, oversaw a muted parade in Moscow for Victory Day on 9 May, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany. Where in previous years there have been grand shows of military might, this year there was a single, Second World War-era, tank. Rather than a show of force, the parade showed how a year of war in Ukraine has degraded Russia’s military. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, meanwhile, reinforced his country’s turn towards the West.

Katie Stallard in Washington DC, and Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin, analyse what the pared-back celebrations in Moscow say about the Kremlin’s relationship with its citizens. Next, they turn to Turkey, where Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces the sternest electoral challenge of his presidency.

Read more:

Katie Stallard on Putin under pressure

Jeremy Cliffe asks: has authoritarianism peaked?

Ido Vock on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s relationship with Vladimir Putin

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