The big news from Vladimir Putin’s almost two-hour state-of-the-nation address late last month wasn’t Russia’s suspension of the New START treaty.
That move amounted to little besides an extra humiliation for its Russian signatory, ex-President Dmitry Medvedev, already reduced to barking out ultranationalist invective on Telegram: Now that Russia considers itself at war with the "collective West,” its willingness to keep its end of any prior agreements shouldn’t be overestimated.
Putin had to mention Russia’s status as a nuclear power and he chose to do so in a relatively nonthreatening way. The real news was an implicit message that the war in Ukraine is not ending anytime soon and that Russians must get used to living with it — especially as, in Putin’s telling, it presents an economic opportunity that’s greater than the sacrifice it requires.