May 16, 2022
A Quiet Victory Day in Moldova and Russia
As we discussed in our last Moldova Matters update lots of expectations were placed on the May 9th Victory Day holiday both in Moldova and in the broader region. Many predicted that Putin would declare a national mobilization and attempt to harness the national fervor of the day to bring together the resources he needed to win the war (or at least not lose so badly). This did not happen. In his speech in Moscow Putin mostly played his greatest hits. The war was “necessary” (but not a war) and that it was caused by nazis and the west not by Russia. He focused the speech on the Donbas in the east of Ukraine and only turned heads a bit when he noted that this war was for the defense of “Russian territory.” In this, he implied that the fake “separatist republics” as well as the Ukrainian Kherson oblast in the south were part of Russia. Rather than making news though, this simply supported the broad consensus of Kremlin watchers – Russia intends to officially annex as much of Ukraine as it can.
Unorthodox Truth 