Summary
I’m not sure we learned anything new from this speech. The big news, as far as I’m concerned, is the hyping of the speech as “historic” and the disappointed reaction of the pro-Russian vatniks on social media, particularly on the pro-war Russian Telegram channels. The suspension of participation in the New START Treaty isn’t particularly significant beyond the symbolism. As far as I’m concerned, the more arms control treaties ****canned, the safe we are. His critique of contemporary Western culture may be correct, but that is no reason to sympathize with him or his actions.

On the anniversary of a brutal and unprovoked invasion of a non-threatening neighbor, we deserved better.

In the past year, we’ve been treated to many speeches by Putin concerning the Ukraine war.
...

They started out bellicose and warning about the use of nuclear weapons. Over time, they’ve become more whiny and pleading. Instead of being Master of the Universe, we now have Holy Russia beset by the overwhelming forces of the West.

This change in tone and the fact that Putin is obviously afraid to attack NATO supply depots in Poland or the main rail lines moving military supplies from Poland into Ukraine leads me to believe that Putin knows something that his fan club on Twitter and Facebook don’t. That is, he is much more worried about tripping “red lines” with NATO than NATO is with him.