Opinion by David Ignatius: Putin underappreciated Ukrainian and U.S. resolve. It’s surprising how an 80-year-old president, who is garrulous, sentimental and sometimes senescent, turned out to be the most undervalued American leader in modern times.
If you wonder why so many Russians still seem to support Putin, despite his catastrophic mistakes, it’s partly because they share his sense of grievance. As historian Mark Galeotti notes in his superb, Russia’s story for centuries has been a recurring tension between West and East, Europe and Asia — between a yearning for acceptance and bitter sense of rejection and disrespect.
What has Putin learned in a year of self-inflicted mayhem? That it’s all the other guy’s fault. He claimed in hisAdvertisement Zelensky’s piece of this story is a combination of raw courage and an actor’s intuitive understanding of how to play the role of his life. Those who saw him at the Munich Security Conference a year ago remember him as a “dead man walking.” Biden recalled on Monday what Zelensky told him the night of the invasion, with the sound of explosions in the background: “You said that you didn’t know when we’d be able to speak again.”U.S. offers of help in evacuating Kyiv.
In the end, war is a test of wills. Putin was convinced that his cold-eyed, brutal resolve would outlast everyone else’s. But a year on, Putin’s staying power begins to look questionable, while Zelensky and Biden have never looked stronger.
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