One thing seemed apparent after Moscow\u2019s muted commemoration this weekend of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II: President Vladimir V. Putin is feeling the pressure.<\/p>\n
Some of it is coming directly from Ukraine, as Kyiv increases its strikes deep into Russian territory and holds Mr. Putin\u2019s forces in a virtual stalemate on the front lines<\/a>. But some of it is also coming from the home front, with rising discontent among Russians over internet restrictions and economic challenges.<\/p>\n So when Mr. Putin took the rostrum in front of a group of journalists after Saturday\u2019s festivities ended, the Russian leader seemed to feel the need to send a message that he was not waging a forever war.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the matter is coming to a close,\u201d Mr. Putin said.<\/p>\n That comment was the one that generated headlines. But other remarks by Mr. Putin were far from a capitulation, and showed the needle he is trying to thread as he continues to pursue a war in which many of his major objectives remain unmet.<\/p>\n Russian military hardware was kept away from Red Square on Saturday not only for security reasons but also because the Russian force \u201cmust focus its attention on the final defeat of the enemy,\u201d Mr. Putin said during the news conference. He also railed against Western elites for disregarding Moscow\u2019s interests, for what he called provoking the conflict in the first place and for mistakenly expecting Russia\u2019s collapse. He gave no indication that he would modify his demands with a view toward ending the war.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wants to send a message: \u2018I understand this war needs to end soon, but it needs to end on my conditions,\u2019\u201d said Stefan Meister, a Russia analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n Though Mr. Putin\u2019s approval ratings have fallen recently, they remain significantly higher than they were in the years before he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to the Levada Center, an independent pollster. (Approval polls have obvious limitations in an authoritarian system.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that this regime is now suddenly breaking down and there is no support anymore,\u201d Mr. Meister said. \u201cI think what we understand now is, he is under pressure. And pressure works. He has to react somehow to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Peace talks once channeled public hopes for an end to the war. But they have disappeared from the news as the Trump administration has turned its attention to the Middle East.<\/p>\n Boris B. Nadezhdin, an opposition politician who tried to run for president against Mr. Putin in 2024<\/a> on an antiwar platform but was barred<\/a> from the race, has been gearing up to run in parliamentary elections scheduled for the fall. As part of the process, he has been conducting focus groups. He said he had not seen Russians so angry about the government since the 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow, things have taken a sharp turn for the worse since the beginning of this year,\u201d Mr. Nadezhdin said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n