From: Atlantic Council By Peter Dickinson
When Vladimir Putin canceled his traditional end-of-year marathon press conference last winter, it was widely interpreted as proof that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was going badly wrong. This December the flagship event was back, and so was the swagger. Putin oozed confidence throughout his carefully choreographed question-and-answer session, which lasted for more than four hours. In addition to claiming large parts of Ukraine as “historically Russian territory” and insisting Ukrainians are actually Russians (“one people”), the Kremlin dictator also made clear that he is in no mood to negotiate. “There will be peace when we have achieved all our goals,” he declared. “Victory will be ours.”
As the New Year holiday season draws near, this same upbeat message of impending victory is on display in public spaces across Russia, and is becoming increasingly prominent throughout the country’s Kremlin-controlled media ecosystem. “It’s difficult to overstate the level of outward confidence currently being displayed on Russian state TV,” commented Russian media watcher Francis Scarr of BBC Monitoring on December 20.
Voice of Ukraine 