FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

France: France 24 and Le Monde cover May 9 with a sociological lens as much as a strategic one. France 24 headlines 'Atmosphere closer to wartime: Moscow's muted Victory Day reflects growing security fears' — a phrasing that summarizes French analysis: the parade holds but the atmosphere is one of the front, not celebration. Images from Le Monde show Red Square without heavy military equipment, stands less full than usual, oppressive security. France 24 notes that Muscovites' response is 'muted' — subdued. Paris, which maintains its policy of support for Ukraine while keeping a channel of communication with Moscow, reads Putin's speech against NATO as an attempt to reinforce internal cohesion before a population whose morale is eroding. RFI recalls the context: in this same city in 1945 they celebrated the end of the war against Nazi Germany — and the Kremlin now attempts to place the war in Ukraine within that same moral continuity.