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This quote is by Hungarian opposition politician Péter Magyar. It addresses a common deflection tactic used by those in power: labeling accountability as revenge to avoid scrutiny. His point is simple — calling out wrongdoing is not a personal attack, it is a civic duty.

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For years, President Vladimir Putin has used Russia’s Victory Day parade to show off its weapons, accentuate his dominance, and deliver narr

Vladimir Putin's Victory Day parade will be pretty wimpy. Ukraine has destroyed considerable amounts of Russian military hardware and what's left is in use in Putin's futile war.

Over a quarter-century in power, President Vladimir Putin has used Russia’s Victory Day parade to show off its military might, accentuate his dominance, and deliver belligerent narratives on World War II and the current geopolitical landscape, often suggesting that Moscow is fighting off a threat from the West that mirrors that of Nazi Germany. Last May 9, marking 80 years since Nazi Germany’s defeat, Putin watched from a grandstand in front of Lenin’s Tomb as soldiers marched and gun-turreted military vehicles, truck-mounted missiles, and other heavy weapons rolled across Red Square. Even given the fact that Putin made scant mention of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his 10-minute address in 2025, focusing on a long-ago war in which Moscow was a winner rather than an ongoing conflict in which it is suffering massive casualties while gaining little ground, this year seems certain to be different.

So instead of missiles and tanks passing through Red Square, there will just be troops and half-hearted spectators who feel obliged to show up. It's fairly symbolic of the current state of mind in Russia.

Most strikingly, that’s because the Defense Ministry announced last week that the traditional “column of military equipment” would be absent from this year’s parade – suggesting that for the first time since 2009, no military vehicles or heavy weapons will be on display. What will be on display, this year more dramatically than last, is Russia’s inability to prevail in a war that Putin, when he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, believed would bring the neighboring country to its knees in a few weeks.

Meanwhile in Hungary, the mood will be much more celebratory. While Putin gives a boring and predictable speech in Moscow, Péter Magyar will become prime minister in Budapest.

Turning the page on Orbán’s rule: Magyar to be sworn in as Hungary PM

Inside Hungary’s dazzling neo-Gothic parliament, the scenes will be solemn on Saturday as the new leader, Péter Magyar, is sworn in. Outside is where the party is expected to unfold, as people pour in from across the country to mark a pivotal moment: the formal end of Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. It comes weeks after Magyar and his opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory in a result that rattled the global far right, reset Hungary’s long-strained relationship with the EU and set off all-night celebrations along the banks of the Danube River. He this week called on Hungarians to join him in turning the page on Orbán’s rule and his efforts to turn Hungary into a “petri dish for illiberalism” during his time in power. “We will step through the gateway of regime change with a huge party. Come along, and invite your family and friends!” Magyar wrote on social media. In the weeks since the election, which he called an end to Hungary’s “two-decade-long nightmare”, Magyar has sought to emphasise his readiness to change the country – vowing to suspend broadcasts from state media that functioned as Orbán mouthpieces, calling on Orbán-era appointees to resign, and sending back the millions of Hungarian forints donated to him by an Orbán-linked supporter. Saturday’s swearing-in will be laced with more of the same symbolism: the European flag will be returned to the parliament’s facade after it was removed in 2014 and Krisztián Kőszegi is expected to become the first Roma vice-president of the national assembly, overseeing a government in which more than a quarter of lawmakers will be women – a record high in the country’s post-communist history.

It's quite a tale of two cities. All the cool kids will be in Budapest rather than Moscow.

Putin's flaccid parade will at least serve to draw Russians' attention partially away from the fact that his lackey Viktor Orbán is losing power in Hungary.

Orbán's departure is also a reminder to Americans that authoritarians don't last forever.