9th May is traditionally celebrated in Russia as Victory Day, the commemoration of the World War II victory over Nazism.
The climax of the day is the massive and meticulously organised parade in the Red Square.
But this year, a number of changes intruded – the number of soldiers was fewer than usual, and there was a drop in the number of tanks on show. And there was no flight-past. This also happened last year and it was said it happened because of the bad weather but this time the weather was fine, but still there were no planes.
And obviously there was no mention of the huge amount of Russian soldiers who have died in Ukraine, except a slight and generic reference to the soldiers who died in defence of the motherland in WW2 and in all time.
Everybody knows how the fighting is going and at a subordinate level the officials are blaming each other, but Putin sails on regardless. He blamed the war on the West when everyone knows it was Russia that invaded the Ukraine and not the other way round.
And as he ended the emotionally charged speech with the words “Urra” which were immediately taken up by the massed troops in a rolling roar that reverberated around the square, everybody knew that this was all show and no substance.
For the war is going bad for Russia but the Supreme Commander does not want to know. He keeps throwing in more and more troops, untrained and badly armed, cannon fodder, while their mothers wait in vain for them to return home.
And nobody dares tell Putin the truth. The independent media has been shut down and anybody who dares dissent faces imprisonment or worse.
It will be a long war and maybe there are horrors still to come but the Free World knows this is a war that cannot be lost, whatever the price.
Now here in Malta that sharp and courageous blogger Mark Camilleri has drawn a picture of Robert Abela holed up in Castile and surrounded by people who do not dare tell him the truth.
In this sense, the two descriptions, of Putin and of Abela, fit.
But while the outcome of the war, still uncertain, must have only one conclusion, what will happen in Malta must have only one result – we cannot continue along this way. Something has to give, whether Abela likes it or not.
Abela’s imposing physical presence and the brusque method he uses to rubbish any opposition might silence the critics momentarily but will not draw supporters except those who queue to get the iced lollies, of which there is a number awaiting.
Putin was wrong, criminally wrong, to invade a sovereign state and to bring about so many deaths, so much destruction.
Russia is a beautiful country, still backward, which can and must be improved. This is what it must focus on doing, rather than the subjugation of a free country.
As for Malta the mind boggles. Is this how we want to leave our country for posterity? As long as the head of government keeps insisting on doing everything his way, and as long as those around him stay silent and let him have his way, we will keep banging out heads on a very hard wall – the wall of reality.
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