Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia for a quarter century. This weekend’s election results confirmed that he will reign for another six years.
Putin’s hold on the Kremlin gives him control of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and a military that’s been at war in Ukraine for more than two years, ever since he launched an invasion in February 2022.
That war has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, but despite these losses, the Russian military is pressing forward.
Ukraine faces the stark prospect of a fight in which key US military assistance is in question. So what will six more years of Vladimir Putin mean for the war in Ukraine? And where do both militaries stand at this point in that brutal war?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
(Image credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko)