Shortly before Mr Zelensky began his speech on March 16th, Russian television broadcast an address given by Vladimir Putin, his counterpart. Where Mr Zelensky appealed to his listeners in the name of all Ukrainians, Mr Putin set Russian against Russian. “Fifth columnists and traitors,” he snarled, would be spat out “like midges that flew into [the Russian people’s] mouth”. The need for cleansing Russia of such “scum” was evoked with disconcertingly familiar fascist rhetoric. “I am convinced that such natural and necessary self-purification of our society will only strengthen our country [and] cohesion.”
