By Olha Chepil | 2025-05-23

KYIV -- The Kremlin's parades are louder this year, but rot and weakness in the state are becoming ever more evident.

In May, Russia marked the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany with its usual display of tanks, medals and military fanfare. In July, Navy Day will bring more celebration: missile cruisers on the water, salutes from the shore, broadcasts soaked in nostalgia. These events have long defined Russian national identity. But in 2025, their purpose feels sharper, and more loaded with intent.

"[Russian President] Vladimir Putin is using these parades and holidays to hide everything happening out in the open. It's a mask for the deterioration of Russia," Serhiy Hromenko, a historian based in Kyiv, told Kontur.

Behind the grand displays lie military failures, economic strain and a society absorbing the quiet cost of war. As the present grows more unstable, the Kremlin is retreating further into the past, using memory as refuge, say observers.

Crisis behind the curtain

Through parades, media campaigns and the glorification of wartime heroes, the Kremlin works to reinforce the image of strength and resilience. But behind the spectacle, President Vladimir Putin is masking deep national decline, said Hromenko.

"During Putin's 25 years in power, Russia had a unique chance to modernize. But he decided that Russia should not be modernized. Doing so would undermine the foundations of his own regime and threaten his rule," he told Kontur.

Russia is on the verge of economic collapse, Austrian political scientist Gregor Razumovsky, who has studied Russian-Ukrainian relations for more than three decades, pointed out.

"After three years of war, the Russian economy faced interest rates at 21% and inflation at more than 20%," he told Kontur.

The current wartime production surge, Razumovsky added, does not reflect a sustainable war economy but "simply an economic disaster," with other industries shutting down and long-term stability eroding.

Naval glory undone

The illusory nature of power is not limited to the economy. Russia's military image, particularly its naval prestige, has suffered visible blows.

This year marks 25 years since the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk, a tragedy that killed all 118 crew members and became an early symbol of Putin's presidency.

Twenty-three sailors survived the initial explosion, media reported at the time.

Those survivors signaled for help using Morse code, recalled Pavlo Lakiychuk, a defense scholar at the Strategy XXI Center for Global Studies.

"They tapped for more than a day," he told Kontur. "It was possible to save them. But the Russian command declared everyone dead within minutes."

Putin made things worse by rejecting international offers of rescue aid for five days.

Public grief was quickly overtaken by patriotic displays that obscured government failure, said Lakiychuk. He recalled Putin's infamous response when asked about the Kursk on CNN: "He grinned and replied that it sank. Absolutely cynical."

Nearly a generation later, the Russian navy faces fresh humiliation, this time in the Black Sea. Since 2022, Russia has lost several major vessels, including the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva, to Ukrainian drone and missile strikes. Analysts say these losses, both material and symbolic, expose weaknesses no military parade can conceal.

"Russia has lost absolute control in the Black Sea," military analyst and correspondent with InfoResist Alexander Kovalenko told Kontur. Even in Sevastopol Bay, he said, "They are afraid of everything."

Weapons fail, Stalin returns

Another symbolic failure came with the test of Russia's Sarmat nuclear missile, personally touted by Putin, which exploded in its silo last year, destroying the launch site and leaving a massive crater. Though the Kremlin suppressed details, analysts say the incident exposed deep flaws in Russia's military-industrial system.

"All the problems are being concealed. Putin uses parades to mask the real state of affairs in Russia itself," said Hromenko.

Although many Russians suspect their quality of life is deteriorating, they still pay attention to the patriotic spectacle, he said: "The TV is more important than the refrigerator for now."

Hromenko pointed to the human cost of the ongoing war. Soldiers returning from Ukraine are often left traumatized and neglected.

While health care and social services are lacking, the Kremlin has managed to quiet discontent by offering large financial incentives.

"Never in their lives have Russian soldiers received such money for injuries or death or simply for participating in combat as they do now," he said. "For the time being, Russian society accepts that a life can be traded for a new apartment."

On May 10, officials unveiled a bas-relief of Joseph Stalin at Moscow's Taganskaya metro station. Analysts see the move as political messaging, a way to redirect public attention from present-day hardship to mythologized strength.

It reflects the Kremlin's deepening insecurity, said Razumovsky.

"The Kremlin has greatly disappointed the Russian elite, who expected Russia's war of conquest to end, as promised, in a matter of days," he said. "A careful assessment after close observation clearly indicates that the era of President Putin appears to be coming to an end."