It's Monday, May 9th, 2022. I'm Albert Moller and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

This is going to be an absolutely huge week, both in terms of domestic issues and international affairs.

And on the global scene, the big news is likely to be something that takes place today.

And that is a speech that is going to be given by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the 77th

anniversary of Russia's victory, along with other allies, of course, including the United States,

over Nazi Germany, bringing the end to World War II.

Now if there's one great patriotic symbol that is shared by virtually all living Russians today.

In connection with the Russian memory of the 20th century, that would be the victory over Nazi Germany.

Now keep in mind that even as we're thinking

about the global consequences of Nazi Germany, the Nazi threat, remember that

the Nazis actually invaded the Soviet Union. They invaded Mother Russia. Now there's a complex history

behind that of course including the fact that Hitler and Stalin had actually adopted

a pact at the expense of the Western nations at one point.

But by the time the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union,

it was clear that Adolf Hitler saw a massive opportunity indeed for what he called Labenstrom living room

for Nazi Germany. He needed the land, he needed the bread basket of Ukraine, he

needed the Soviet Union defeated defeated and much of its territory a part of the greater

German sphere.

And so for the Soviet Union, World War II was actually a very different war than it was even for the United States and even for

other Western allies. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War 2, 27 million casualties. That's a scale that is almost

unimaginable in Western terms. But the Soviet Union also perpetuated itself by its

victory over Nazi Germany.

...