BERLIN ¨C The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II was the only forthcoming event Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned in his New Year¡¯s address to the nation. Creating an alternative to the dominant Western narrative about that war is key to Putin¡¯s way of securing Russia¡¯s place in the world.
Putin has appeared lately to be obsessed with World War II, discoursing about it at every opportunity ¡ª during an informal session with other post-Soviet leaders, at his big end-of-year news conference, in a meeting with Russian tycoons, at the Defense Ministry in the presence of top generals.
He¡¯s talked time and again about delving into archival documents; he¡¯s mentioned working on a scholarly article about the war. Even for a leader who has made the Soviet Union¡¯s victory over the Nazis (seen by many as a triumph over a rotten Europe) a cornerstone of the new Russian national identity, Putin¡¯s evident emotional involvement and the sheer time investment are unusual.
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