The end of the beginning of the war in Ukraine
The United States started the war in Ukraine, declared Vladimir Putin in his long-awaited state of the union address earlier today, thus highlighting the eternal dilemma of any journalist in the age of disinformation: How do you actually cover political speeches that present up as down and black as white?
To sum up: according to the Russian president, despite America’s plans to destroy his country, Russia has emerged victorious, overcoming all the economic troubles of the past year. The future ahead is bright, and it lies with Asia, not with the decadent, rotting West. “Look what they are doing in the West, pedophilia becomes the norm, priests approve same-sex marriage,” the Russian president said. “The West is proposing the idea of a gender-neutral God. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.” (For context, the pedophilia myth has been cultivated by the Kremlin for a long time.)
Here’s a helpful summary of Putin’s one-hour-and-45-minute long speech, and here’s an alternative, shorter version by the Russian journalist Ilya Krasilschik: “1. He didn’t start this. 2. He started nothing. 3. But he could start something. 4. Everything that’s bad was done by the West, everything good by him. 5. But he did nothing. 6. But he could. 7. Because he does only good things while the West does all the bad things. 8. But he could do bad things too. 9. But he doesn’t.”
As far as the war in Ukraine is concerned, the top headline is: nothing. The first anniversary just marks the end of its beginning.