On a recent evening in Red Square, a corps of elite paratroopers dressed in camouflage performed a battle-like dance with pyrotechnics. An Egyptian performer dressed as a pharaoh rode back and forth in a chariot wielding an ankh, the ancient Egyptian symbol of life, as a band played Katyusha, a Soviet-era patriotic war song.
A detachment from the battle in Ukraine is exactly what President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is counting on as he carries out a domestic strategy of shielding his people from hardships.