It's Tuesday, May 10, 2022.

I'm Albert Molar and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian

worldview.

Well the big story out of Moscow yesterday is that there actually wasn't much of a big story.

And that turns out to be important.

It had been expected that on the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II, what Russians

call the Great Patriotic War, Vladimir Putin would use an already militarized situation

in order to further his military ambitions, perhaps officially

announced war on Ukraine, a country that he's invaded a matter of something like three months ago,

or perhaps to define Russia's war effort or to stoke further tensions with the West.

And when you think about this anticipation, you need to recognize that Vladimir Putin's own government

had been building those expectations.

And that expectation also included information given by the Russian government that the big military

parade that took place yesterday there in front of the Kremlin was also to include

massive flyovers of Russian military aircraft including we were told the

Russian President's so-called doomsday plane, the plane on which the Russian

president was to seek refuge and from which the Russian president was to direct

war including nuclear war.

Vladimir Putin and his government backed off of that nearly entirely. They didn't back war. and for that matter both fears and expectations on the part of many the Russian

president appeared to be backing down somewhat. But this raises some issues on

its own. There may be reasons of state security why the flyovers didn't happen.

For one thing, as you're thinking about how effective the Ukrainians have been, and as you're thinking

...