Harder line emerges from Putin

UKRAINE» The world according to President Vladimir Putin looks like this: Russia is on the rise while the West is in chaos.

“They may think that we are like them, but we are different, with a different genetic, cultural and moral code,” Putin said last month, excoriating the United States. “We know how to defend our interests.”

As he masses troops near Ukraine, puts down domestic dissent and engages in a fast-intensifying conflict with President Joe Biden, Putin is on the verge of decisions that could define a new, even harder-line phase of his presidency. On Wednesday, Putin is scheduled to deliver his annual state of the nation address, a speech that could shed light on just how far he is prepared to escalate tensions with the West.

Russian prosecutors last week filed suit to outlaw the organization of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In Russia’s southwest, Putin has massed some 100,000 troops — a force, the Kremlin has indicated, that could be prepared to move into neighboring Ukraine.

Putin’s opponents have called for protests across the country Wednesday in support of Navalny, who his allies say is on a hunger strike and near death in a Russian prison.

To Putin’s supporters and to analysts who follow him closely, his moves have a certain internal logic — revolving around the conviction that the West seeks to weaken Russia and that Putin is integral to its strength.

The election of Biden, despite his promise to be tough on Russia, initially gave the Kremlin hope, analysts say.

Then came the television interview in March in which Biden assented when asked whether Putin was a “killer.”

It was followed by last week’s raft of U.S. sanctions, combined with Biden’s call for a summit meeting with Putin, which to many Russians looked like a crude U.S. attempt to negotiate from a position of strength.

The White House has warned the Russian government it “will be held accountable” if Navalny dies in prison. Western officials — and Navalny’s supporters and allies — reject the idea that the opposition leader is acting on another country’s behalf. But in the Kremlin’s logic, Navalny is a threat to Russian statehood, doing the West’s bidding by undermining Putin.