Why it’s a muted celebration in Moscow

0:00This week on the NPR Politics Podcast, President Trump has never been more unpopular. And the midterms are now less than six months away. So the intensity of opposition that's waiting for a lot of these Republican candidates in a general election is very, very high. The politics of a wartime economy this week on the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today on State of the World, why it's a muted celebration in Moscow.

0:33You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Friday, May 8th. I'm Greg Dixon. In a few minutes, an icon of wildlife documentary turns 100. But first, May 9th is Russia's Victory Day, marking the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Traditionally, it's a huge celebration in Moscow's Red Square, including a parade showing off missiles, tanks, and other military might. But this year, the celebration has been scaled back amid concerns of Ukrainian drone attacks. As NPR's Charles Maines in Moscow tells us, it's also a symbol of the growing frustrations Russians have with the war.

1:20Russian jets taking practice runs over the skies of Moscow earlier this week. the lone display of military hardware in a parade that will feature troops with no tanks or missiles on Red Square out of fear of Ukrainian attacks. Victoria, a schoolteacher who declined to give her last name out of fear of government reprisals, says Ukraine's apparent ability to interrupt the proceedings is the latest sign. It's past time for this war to end. All I want is peace and for the leaders of all countries to come to some kind of agreement, she tells me. Because I have friends in Ukraine, in Europe, this war has gone on long enough.

2:00For more than four years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed Russian society is consolidated around a war effort that echoes the Soviets' own battles against fascist Germany. Yet with his special military operation in Ukraine now grinding on longer than the war against Hitler that inspired it, Russian unity looks increasingly fragmented. In fact, Cracks are everywhere.

2:25Over the airwaves, nationalists and pro-war figures openly talk of a conflict that may be unwinnable. It's a stalemate. Ukraine can't put Russia on our knees with their attacks, and neither can we do that to them, says Dmitry Steshin, Russian war correspondent speaking recently on the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station. Meanwhile, leading academics warn of an economy headed for ruin.

2:51Robert Nikmatulin, a high-ranking member of Russia's Academy of Sciences, was met with applause when he railed against the government's destructive wartime economic policies at a Moscow business forum last month. Even pro-Kremlin social media influencers have been using their platforms to argue Russian society is teetering on edge.

3:13Victoria Bonia, a celebrity blogger, garnered more than a million of what else but likes when she posted a recent video warning President Putin was dangerously out of touch with the problems facing ordinary Russians. You cannot deny reality till the end of times. You can do it only till the third moment. That's Abbas Galyamov, a former speechwriter for the Russian president. He's now a Kremlin critic in exile. Galyamov points to state polls that show growing disillusionment with Putin and the war. He says frustration is building ever since last year, when Putin rejected efforts by President Trump to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict on what seemed to many like the most generous of terms to Moscow.

3:51Elites and general population, they are irritated because Putin turned out to be so stubborn. He is unable to come to terms even with such loyal people as Trump. The Kremlin continues to insist Russia will meet its military objectives in Ukraine, even if that means taking unpopular measures at home. Citing the persistent threat of Ukrainian drones, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that includes an internet clampdown. Rolling blackouts brought Russia's 21st century digital economy to a temporary halt earlier this week. They're expected to again on Saturday when mobile internet services go dark and Russia's scaled-back parade gets underway.

4:33Charles Baines, NPR News, Moscow.

4:40Fans of nature documentaries were in London's Trafalgar Square recently, dressed up like bumblebees, tigers, and lions. In the jungle, the morning jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. They were there to celebrate the wildlife expert and climate change campaigner David Attenborough, who just turned 100. And PR's Lauren Frayer has this appreciation of the iconic voice of nature's wonders. David Attenborough was already age 30, though wearing what looks like a Boy Scout uniform, when in 1956 he wrestled a Burmese python on TV. It's important to grab his tail as soon as you grab his head, otherwise he'll wrap his great coils around you and give you a very nasty squeeze.

5:26He cuddled gorillas in Rwanda. There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging at a glance with a gorilla. than any other animal I know. And he once got pounced on by a lusty capper, Kaylee Grouse, in the Scottish Highlands. He is so charged up, this being the breeding season, that he would display to almost anything, including me. No doubt. No doubt. He's explored mating rituals of fireflies. The sexual signals of the fireflies. Blue whales. I can see its tail just under my boat here. And it's coming up, it's coming up. And Galapagos tortoises, some of whom are even older than him.

6:18He collected fossils as a kid, studied zoology at Cambridge, got drafted into the Royal Navy in 1947, and then had a whole career as a BBC manager before moving on screen, only when someone else got ill. Sharmila Chowdhury was 15 when she first saw one of his films in the cinema in her native India. There was this man showing me all these extraordinary creatures, from tiny protozoans to strange sea cucumbers. It changed her life. She too decided to study zoology and went all the way to a PhD. She moved to the UK, met her teenage idol, and then got hired by him. Last year, Chowdhury produced the film Wild London, in which Attenborough, then aged 99, shimmies on his belly to get eye to eye with a spiny hedgehog.

7:07You know, we called him the animal whisperer, the little peregrine chick in wild London. It was screaming its little head off. And then David said, now, now, you know, it's all right. And this little bird leaned back, looked up at David and just seemed to know it's going to be all right. It's kind of like what he does to us all. Stop commuters on a busy London street and they'll wax poetic about memories from childhood and that iconic hushed voice. Sunday afternoons watching Planet Earth with my dad growing up. We connect his voice with nature. He's a good person. And at the moment, that's really rare.

7:43He's just likable. He can inform you, make you cry at some iguanas being chased by snakes. So I think the world is a better place because of it. Those were commuters Liam Wall, Andreana Naidoo and Chris DeMetto with birthday greetings for the big man. I hope this gets it. Thank you so much for everything you've done, Sir David. We love you. Happy birthday. Oh, happy birthday. And I wish you so many more for my sake. And the grandchildren I hope to have. Happy birthday, David Attenborough. Let's go another hundred. Lauren Freyer, NPR News, London.

8:25That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.