Putin embraces war

• Crisis Putin breaks 35 years of nuclear arms control and raises the risk of an arms escalation

• Geopolitics The head of Chinese diplomacy staged his "solid" bilateral ties with Putin in Moscow

On the same soccer field where Russia shone in the 2018 World Cup,

on Wednesday

to convince the Russians that war is the only game to play.

On the stage of the Luzhniki stadium, a young blond man dressed in uniform sang selected verses: "I'm not afraid of staining my hands with blood, it's a war, we didn't start it. The red flag [a banner still used by the army [Russian] will wave over Berlin, but while blood waters the ground, our descendants will call it the Great War."

In front of thousands of people, Vladimir Putin praised in the same act the Russian military who are fighting in what he defined as

.

The Russian president has transmitted to his government that now

.

With what was to be a lightning invasion turned into a quagmire of blood, the task now is to plunge the Russians into this new reality in which a war that cannot yet be called its name is the only thing that matters.

The morale of victory is sought

.

On the street, at most, there is morality, plain.

The organizers brought city officials and also residents of the suburbs in exchange for a ranch and 500 rubles (six euros) to try to fill a capacity before which Putin gave a

.

He spoke of God and praised the Russian soldiers fighting in the Ukraine.

He assured that the military "has the support of the whole country", so each of the Russians "to some extent is the defender of the fatherland."

After decades in which Putin has won by selling stability,

, and not only because of the sanctions.

To continue fighting, Russia had to restructure the entire military-industrial sector.

Already in the fall of 2022, not only military, but also civilian companies began to participate in the implementation of the state defense directive.

At first, when the Kremlin was still hoping for a quick victory, there was no talk of

.

After it became clear that the war would be long, the first significant changes began to occur.

war economy

The Kremlin is putting the Russian economy on a "war footing," says analyst

.

The Government is discussing with large companies a "single voluntary contribution" to the budget in accordance with the extraordinary tax model.

And, at the end of November, the Executive authorized sole suppliers

to make

The legal framework of the citizen has also changed.

Following the September mobilization, Putin signed a law under which violation of the terms of the state defense directive became a criminal offense and could lead to a ten-year prison sentence.

Before it was an administrative infraction.

Before the festival of patriotism, the Russian Duma ratified the suspension of the New START nuclear disarmament treaty.

The Russian government minimized its immediate effects.

"I don't think the decision to suspend the Treaty will bring us closer to a nuclear war," said Deputy Foreign Minister

.

Russia says it will abide by the rules of the nuclear treaty despite suspending the deal with the US.

But the atmosphere in the stadium, in the Duma or in the media is not one of negotiation.

message to the west

The Russian president tried to add charisma to the

.

Dressed in a 2,700-euro Italian coat, protected by snipers and missile launchers placed around the stadium before the event,

.

The Russian anthem played, and the president evaporated.

The masters of ceremonies had heated up the atmosphere by recreating war in all its forms.

Some extras came on stage dressed as the Red Army.

Meanwhile, the actor

, who in 2000 made a film with

and now champions his patriotic warmongering, read a grave-toned admonition.

"History repeats itself, we again face the West in defense of the Russian people, and again we insist on reminding the world: do not go to war against the Russians."

Children irregularly removed from Mariupol also took the stage.

There they were pushed to thank "Uncle Yuri", a Russian soldier, who "saved" them.

Following the presenter's pleas, several children hugged him in a somewhat forced gesture.

Wagner accuses again

In an atmosphere of tight ranks, only the chief of Wagner's Russian mercenaries marred the party, who intensified his dispute with the high command of the army, once again breaking the taboo of presenting images of the corpses of his soldiers.

Evegni Prigozhin

competes for Putin's attention and when the war is going so-so it's her time to point the finger.

She accuses the Russian Defense Minister,

, and also his Chief of Staff of depriving his fighters of ammunition and trying to destroy this mercenary militia.

Actions that, according to him, amount to

.

Prigozhin notes that this

is causing increased casualties among Wagner's troops fighting around Bakhmut.

He has even broken the taboo again by posting photos of his dead soldiers piled on the ground.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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