Pjotr Sauer

You know, as an average Russian, you will be able to live the way you're used to.

Maybe you won't be able to buy the Western brands that you're used to, but otherwise your life will still be comfortable.

But now that social contract appears to be broken and that has frustrated a lot of people.

And let's talk a bit about Victory Day, a big day in the Russian calendar, which was celebrated last month, which marked the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

How did that play out?

Because it was a little different this year, wasn't it?

Victory Day is arguably the biggest holiday in Russia.

Growing up as a kid, it was something that everyone looked forward to.

And Vladimir Putin only made it bigger.

And he introduced these mass military parades.

Initially, Victory Day was a lot about remembrance, you know, remembrance of all the sacrifices to defeat the Nazis.

But for Putin, it also became an instrument to show Russia's might and for him to project the power that he has.

We've seen these mass military parades happening every year, and they continued even after the Russian full-scale invasion.

But this year, for the first time, Russia was forced to scale back the military parade.

So there were no tanks.

There were only a few jets flying around.

But it was a huge embarrassment for Putin.

I think many realize that this is hugely embarrassing, especially because, you know, when Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion, he saw that within a month or two, they would, you know, be inside Kiev.

And now, you know, we have a world where Russia actually has to scale down its own parade inside Moscow.

Yeah, because it's so frightened of Ukrainian drones, which did manage to hit Moscow last month, right, in a pretty shocking incident for Moscow residents.