Putin’s Illusions of Victory Parade in a Potemkin Village

Vladimir Putin’s excessive obsession with defeating Ukraine and imprisoning it in his new evil empire has in his mind shattered the boundary between reality and fantasy and opened the way to his own Twilight Zone, Wonder Land and Neverland.

As people – some even in Russia – have observed, he’s crazy.

Or he is composing an elaborate manuscript to deceive and convince his gullible Russian subjects and auslanders that despite evidence to the contrary, Ukraine actually surrendered and Russian won the war it launched on February 24, 2022. You see, Russians, or at least the vast majority of them, religiously believe Putin’s propaganda about beating those infernal Ukrainians because they do not get their news from any other source but the official state TV channels and programs.

Nonetheless, Putin’s three-day-war-with-Ukraine wish list includes appearing in all his grandeur in Kyiv, on Khreshchatyk, reviewing the victorious Russian military machine as it proudly marches along Ukraine’s famous boulevard. And then accepting Ukraine’s surrender instrument that will be signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

This is to take place on May 9, which is a grand holiday in Russia, filled with parades and speeches because a day earlier the World War Two allies and Russia accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender. Moscow still makes a big deal of this day even though we, in America, hardly pay attention to it. Map 9 is called Victory Day.

Dream on, Vova. Your hope has sunk like the ill-fated Russian navy ship.

But Mad Putin still wants a parade so that he can participate like Hitler and Mussolini did at their assemblies.

According to the video link to a Russian-language YouTube post provided with this blogpost, Putin’s entourage is secretly abuzz building a replica of Kyiv and Khreshchatyk in the Moscow oblast where the parade could be held on May 9, about a month away. This latter-day Potemkin village will include a reviewing stand where the Russian fuhrer will cheer his troops.

But that would only be half of the ruse. What’s a victory parade without soldiers of the defeated nation? Russia’s clothing manufacturers are sewing Ukrainian military uniforms and headgear that will be appropriately worn and torn and donned on faux Ukrainian servicemen captured in battle to give the impression of here are the pathetic losers. The North Vietnamese displayed captured American soldiers for its audience.

The charade will conclude with a surrender ceremony in a room that will look like the Ukrainian President’s office, where an actor resembling Zelenskyy — how ironic, an actor playing an actor turned president — will give Ukraine away to Russia.

And the Russian people who may have been losing faith in their greatness will be imbued with a new dose of fabrications about their lasting supremacy. At the same time the few remaining earthlings who still favor Putin will also be given the opportunity to share in this ersatz joy.

This production will probably be filmed for posterity and submitted for a Russian Oscar in the documentary category. But be careful, Putin, Zelenskyy may appear to punch you in the face.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2uOXLksubkU