Historian Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer winner and one of the West's most informed writers on Russia, says something brutal in a column for The Atlantic - Putin's war has come home. „Four years ago Putin offered Moscow's business class an implicit deal: support my war in Ukraine, and I will make sure you never have to think about it. Last week that deal cracked."

The war has been felt in Moscow ever since May 2023, when Ukrainian drones struck over the Kremlin - and exposed the gaps in Russian air defence. Since then Ukraine has been systematically hitting Moscow's airports, halting flights, doing real damage.

7 May 2026. The mayor of Moscow announces - hundreds of aircraft intercepted on their way to the city. Two days later, the capital was preparing for the 9 May parade, Victory Day. The shrine of the Putin regime. The day Russia celebrates victory over Hitler - and Putin turned that victory into the central axis of Russian national identity.

The Kremlin was nervous. The foreign minister threatened „no mercy" if Ukraine attacked on 9 May. The Kremlin spokesman insisted security had been maxed out „because of the threat from Kyiv". Putin personally asked Trump to broker a one-day ceasefire. Zelensky agreed - but only after an exchange of 1,000 prisoners.

The parade itself showed everything. Moscow without internet, cash machines that did not work, payment systems that crashed - all because of telecoms restrictions and economic pressure. Fewer foreign leaders. No tanks, no modern missile systems. The whole ceremony lasted 45 minutes. One of the most striking moments - North Korean soldiers marching beside Russian ones. A blunt reminder of their role in Kursk.

Applebaum puts the moment in context. Putin built an entire cult around the Second World War victory. It was the only way to compensate for the loss of the empire after 1989. But the current war - illegal, unnecessary, brutal - has already lasted longer than the Soviet war against Nazi Germany. With over a million Russian casualties. And no meaningful gains.

„A vacuum has opened where propaganda used to rule", Applebaum says. „Something or someone will fill it." For the Balkans that sounds familiar. We too have regimes that live off past victories. We too know how they end - when the propaganda runs out, and tomorrow has to be built out of something concrete, not out of memories.