May 8, 1945, marked the end of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) that the Soviet Union, and now Russia, calls World War II. From a high reviewing stand, Russian leaders from Stalin to Putin reviewed Russian military might proudly parade through the streets of Moscow. But this year’s parade was shorter and more restrained, and for the first time in 70 years, missile attacks on their capital city were happening. An attack was so probable that Putin negotiated a three-day cease-fire with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
Initiated by Putin against a former satellite country with less than one-third its population, the Russo/Ukrainian War is now longer than winning the Great Patriotic War over Hitler’s Germany and his Thousand-Year Reich. Ukraine was not ruled by one of the cruelest dictators in all history, but by a former comedian who happened to find his way into the presidency when his nation was attacked along a long Russian border. Begging, borrowing, and stealing outside help wherever he could find it, President Zelenskyy inspired his nation to fight on and not give up their sovereignty back to the country that has sought to dominate them and destroy their culture for over one-thousand years.
In agreeing to a ceasefire to accommodate Russia’s annual parade, Putin tacitly acknowledged that he had attempted a bridge too far! Instead of only playing defense, Zelenskyy was sending missiles deep into Russia, even into Moscow. Russian oil infrastructure was struck. Last year, Ukrainian forces had secretly moved shortrange drones by truck deep into Russia that destroyed numerous Russian military jets parked openly on what had been considered by Putin out of harm’s way.
Old stories claimed that Putin maintained wide distances from other human contacts because of his paranoia about catching a life-threatening disease. Random new intelligence reports claim that Putin recently spends much less time above ground and in safer underground areas from either Ukrainian missile attacks or from rival coup attempts. He reportedly banned cell phones from being carried by those close to him. Putin’s questioned public image as a strong man has increased his paranoia, a malady not uncommon among dictators who come under extreme stress and concern over their control.
One report claimed that Putin has become wary of flying. It is widely believed that Putin was responsible for the bomb placed aboard the airplane that killed the chief of the Wagner Group, mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin, with whom Putin was in conflict, another paranoid issue affecting Putin to lose sleep each night. As Shakespeare wrote in Henry IV, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”
Finally, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Putin partnered with the oligarchs in the corruption of the Russian economy, stealing Russia’s major industries. Now those oligarchs face confiscation internally and sanctions from the West externally as they seek to maintain control over their investments. Some are leaving Russia. Some may be unhappy with Putin for invading Ukraine which has threatened their livelihood. Putin accumulated a net worth estimated as high as $200 billion, an amount which would make him one of the richest men in the world, if he can hold on to it.
Putin knows he has attempted a bridge too far, but he needs to end his war against Ukraine while still retaining power at home. He just doesn’t know how to finish a war that he should have won in less than a month. The war now has lasted for over four years without a victory. That scenario does not play well against the backdrop of celebrating Russia’s Great Patriotic War.
President Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping should have interesting conversations this week on what place China’s two weak members of his Axis of Chaos will be allowed to participate following the approaching end of the Russo/Ukrainian War and the Judeo/American Iranian Conflict.
TW3
John Whitmore Jenkins
May 14, 2026
