Putin’s message to Russians: Prepare for a long war.

If much of President Vladimir Putin’s 100-minute state-of-the-nation speech on Tuesday sounded familiar, that was by design: Its purpose, it appeared, was to emphasize to Russians that war is the new normal.

Mr. Putin’s only major revelation was that Russia would suspend participation in New START, its last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the United States — and one that the State Department had already declared Russia to be not compliant with. He did not signal any major change in how he will wage the war in Ukraine: There was no official declaration of war, no announcement of a new draft, and no new threat of using nuclear weapons.

Instead, Mr. Putin’s main underlying message was that Russians, and implicitly the Western coalition that opposes him, must prepare for the war to last for years. Read more

@nytimes