Cups depicting Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and Russian President Vladimir Putin are displayed for sale at a souvenir shop in St. Petersburg, Russia, in
2022. The words on the Putin cup reads ‘The most polite man.’
(AP Photo)
The 2024 D-day commemorations sent a message of European unity but missed the opportunity to acknowledge Ukraine’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism.
In this photo released by Sputnik news agency on Feb. 9, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the Kremlin in Moscow.
(Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Why is there such a Russian focus on the Second World War? Because it’s used to justify authoritarian states, the rule of dictators like Putin and Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko.
Interviews with Russian men found most no longer see military service as a marker of masculinity.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, attends a flower-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier close to the Kremlin.
EPA-EFE/Anton Novoderekhkin/Kremlin pool/Sputnik