Speaking at a splashy award ceremony at the Kremlin on Monday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin invoked the National Day holiday and appealed to his subjects’ sense of “patriotism” during a “difficult time.”
He did not elaborate on those difficulties, which included Ukraine launching a much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russia’s invading force and recapturing several eastern villages.
National Day, or Russia Day, is a public holiday adopted in 1994 to commemorate the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the establishment of its successor, the Russian Federation. National Day has long been used by the Putin regime to nourish feelings of patriotism, although many Russians either dispassionately view the holiday as merely another day off from work, or actively dislike it because they mourn the demise of the Soviet Union.
The Moscow Times saw few displays of spontaneous “patriotism” on Monday, despite hundreds of concerts, fireworks displays, and other…