Putin is smiling. But he shouldn’t be too happy

Russian President Vladimir Putin skipped his traditional, long-winded annual press conference last year — for good reason. Despite the sweet nothings churned out by the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, his war of choice in Ukraine wasn’t going well. In March and April 2022, the mighty Russian army was forced to give up on its quest to take Kyiv. In September, it ran away like a bunch of headless chickens as the Ukrainian army executed a stealth counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. Two months later, Russian forces left Kherson city.