Putin tries to build himself a position of strength

Some of this signaling is likely aimed at shaping the agenda for the much-anticipated high-level dialogue with the United States, but much of it amounts to willful self-deception. Russia’s position of strength is, after all, in the eye of the beholder, and Putin is prone to taking his inflated beliefs for reality. The Knyaz Pozharsky may be a modern and powerful weapon system, but the addition of this submarine to Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces cannot compensate for the progressing degradation of the Russian Navy, which necessitated the cancellation of the traditional naval parade last Sunday. Persistent attacks on Ukrainian defensive positions sustain Putin’s impression of controlling the strategic initiative, but the tremendous human costs of this strategy make a victory, even of a Pyrrhic kind, only a tragic illusion. A realistic assessment of one’s own weaknesses is necessary for a constructive engagement in peace talks, but Putin’s regime, by its corrupt, autocratic nature, is unable to make one.