Vladimir Putin scrapped Russia’s Navy Day parade over fears of Ukrainian strikes and then raged to a group of sailors about a revenge fantasy and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
After canceling the parade—which was set to feature around 200 warships sailing along the Neva River in St. Petersburg—the president opted for a televised meeting with Navy personnel. In an apparent bid to save face, he angrily predicted that Ukraine would ultimately fall apart, claiming that Russia had actually been the only “guarantor” of Ukraine’s “territorial integrity.” Apart from the eastern regions of Ukraine that Moscow has tried to claim as its own, Putin declared the western regions “a gift from Stalin” and claimed they would “sooner or later” return to Hungary, Romania, and Poland.
The 73-year-old leader sounded somewhat defeated as he admitted that such a “return” would not happen immediately, suggesting it could take “a year, or two, or maybe even ten or fifteen” before everything would “historically fall into place.”
The claims about Ukraine’s western regions are a recurring part of the Kremlin’s bogus historical narrative that Putin has repeatedly used to try and justify his war.
The move came as Putin’s war faces a growing backlash at home, with a months-long Ukrainian drone campaign targeting Russian oil infrastructure crippling parts of the country’s refining capacity, worsening fuel shortages, and stoking frustration among some of the Kremlin’s most loyal supporters.
In a separate video address recorded from the safety of his office, Putin told sailors that Russia’s “naval forces are capable of effectively accomplishing the full range of tasks assigned to them.” The Russian leader also sought to project strength toward the West, boasting that the navy was “constantly developing,” including its nuclear strike capabilities.
Putin’s display of confidence before Navy personnel, some of whom appeared less than convinced by his remarks, came just days after an uncomfortable public setback in which Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used a meeting meant to highlight Russia-Kazakh ties to publicly undermine the Kremlin leader.
In remarks broadcast by state-controlled media, Tokayev said he had been receiving signals from both Europe and the United States about the war and had already discussed them with Putin. He then delivered a striking assessment, saying that “the nature of this conflict is not entirely clear,” which appeared to leave the Russian president visibly uncomfortable.
The meltdown also comes amid growing frustration inside Russia, where Ukrainian strikes on warehouses belonging to Wildberries—the country’s equivalent of Amazon—have sparked anger among small business sellers as their financial losses pile up.
“We’re already getting screwed over from every direction as it is,” cosmetic brand founder Svetlana Dodo said in an Instagram video, saying she had lost around 1 million rubles—about $12,800—after Ukrainian strikes set warehouses ablaze, destroying billions of dollars’ worth of inventory.
Last Sunday, Vladimir Solovyov, one of Putin’s most prominent television propagandists, began his evening program by acknowledging that “things are difficult.”
Putin, in comments to Russian sailors on Sunday, appeared to try and dismiss the growing public outrage that has begun to seep out online, claiming that it’s “dangerous” to rely on information in “online communities” because there is too much “clutter.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in a national address on Thursday that individuals close to Putin had contacted Kyiv and blamed the Russian leader personally for starting the war and the heavy losses Russia has suffered.
