Russia\u2019s president declared this recession will not stand. <\/p>\n
Like a comic-book villain \u2014 melodramatic and delusional \u2014 Vladimir Putin seems convinced saying something makes it true. <\/p>\n
But the out-of-control inflation he wishes away doesn\u2019t answer to bluster: It empties stores and strains family budgets. <\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s superpowers are as real as those of the state he runs.<\/p>\n
Moscow\u2019s impotence is\u00a0visible<\/a>\u00a0to anyone willing to look. <\/p>\n Eleven years into its crusade against a neighbor one-quarter its size, Russia holds less Ukrainian ground than it did in 2022, and its latest tactics \u2014 terrorizing civilians \u2014 are best described as a tyrant tantrum.<\/p>\n Each dawn\u00a0brings\u00a0killer drones and missiles aimed not at Ukraine\u2019s military targets but at apartment buildings, playgrounds, maternity wards.<\/p>\n In Kherson, a Russian drone operator killed<\/a> 1-year-old Dmytryk\u00a0in his grandmother\u2019s yard. <\/p>\n This was no isolated incident \u2014 the United Nations was investigating<\/a> these \u201chuman safari\u201d attacks as crimes against humanity before this cold-blooded execution of a toddler made headlines.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s campaign to punish Ukraine for daring to exist is the flailing of a bully, full of rage, devoid of strength. <\/p>\n As it struggles to conquer, Moscow turns to terror, but every strike only hardens Kyiv\u2019s resolve because Ukrainians know letting Russia get its way will not end the suffering \u2014 it\u2019ll\u00a0multiply<\/a>\u00a0it.<\/p>\n Some will say: Ukraine stands because we\u2019re helping. But\u00a0how much are we really<\/a>? A drip of aid here, a shipment of munitions there \u2014 delayed, debated, diluted. <\/p>\n All told, America has\u00a0spent<\/a>\u00a0less than 1% of its federal budget to help the bravest people on Earth defend themselves. <\/p>\n If that fainthearted stream has kept Russia\u2019s army at bay, it doesn\u2019t prove our strength \u2014 it demonstrates Moscow\u2019s weakness.<\/p>\n Russia thinks it\u2019s a superpower, but a superpower wouldn\u2019t stall out because someone across the ocean is struggling to help Kyiv while making sure Moscow can save face. <\/p>\n What keeps Ukraine alive is not our help; it\u2019s a people who know what they\u2019re fighting for, facing a brutal colonizer that doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s terrorism includes targeted strikes on civilians, like this one in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv this month. Ukrainian State Emergency Service<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s even run out of basic food staples. <\/p>\n Potatoes\u00a0are a luxury. Prices have almost tripled in a year, and families are forced to ration. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not a silly grocery-store problem \u2014 it\u2019s a window into an economy on the brink,\u00a0strained<\/a>\u00a0by a criminal war of choice, sanctions and decades of embezzlement.<\/p>\n Moscow launched an invasion it thought would be over in days: Soldiers packed parade uniforms and food rations for a week. <\/p>\n But Ukraine refused to surrender, and it all went horribly wrong for Putin. <\/p>\n In failing to win quickly, Russia did more than lose momentum \u2014 it lost autonomy. It now\u00a0takes orders\u00a0from Beijing. Bloomberg<\/a> reports 92% of the foreign components found in Russia\u2019s killer drones are of Chinese origin.<\/p>\n On nuclear weapons, Xi Jinping \u2014 the \u201cdaddy,\u201d to use NATO chief Mark Rutte\u2019s word \u2014 made himself abundantly clear: Their use is\u00a0off the table<\/a>. <\/p>\n Russia may bluster and threaten, but the decision is no longer Moscow\u2019s to make. The credibility of Russia\u2019s nuclear threat lies in the eyes of the beholder \u2014 us.\u00a0<\/p>\n A superpower doesn\u2019t beg North Korea for artillery shells and Iran for drone technology. <\/p>\n Moscow is reduced to knocking on the doors of pariah states that once depended on it.<\/p>\n Like a comic-book villain, Putin seems convinced saying something makes it true. Getty Images<\/p>\n Russia racked up more than a million casualties trying to recolonize Ukraine. <\/p>\n But fear not \u2014 the Kremlin has a magic trick up its bloodstained sleeve. Just as it outlaws recessions, it solves its demographic crisis by simply\u00a0stopping<\/a>\u00a0the release of monthly population data.<\/p>\n What about Russia\u2019s storied soft power \u2014 its grand ideology, rich heritage and claim to virtue? <\/p>\n Moscow has skillfully exploited Western culture wars, positioning itself as the defender of traditional values to Americans fed up with woke politics. It\u2019s a fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n Russia\u00a0has one of the world\u2019s highest divorce rates \u2014 60% higher than the United States\u2019. <\/p>\n Its abortion rate is more than twice that of Ukraine\u2019s. <\/p>\n Barely 1% of the population attended Christmas services last year. <\/p>\n And at the center of it all sits the Russian Orthodox Church, less a religious institution than a state-security\u00a0affiliate<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Tucker Carlson mourned the fate of Ukraine\u2019s Moscow Patriarchate, he left out two crucial details. <\/p>\n First, it is Russia \u2014 not Ukraine \u2014 that has damaged or destroyed\u00a0more than 600 houses of worship since 2014. <\/p>\n And second, Ukraine isn\u2019t banning religion; it\u2019s evicting spies. In the middle of a war, who can blame Kyiv for trying to ensure priests are serving God, not the FSB?<\/p>\n