It was a powerful symbol. Just after speaking for two hours on Tuesday, July 1, with Emmanuel Macron – his first phone conversation with the French president in three years – Vladimir Putin then met in person with Yevgeny Pervyshov, governor of the oblast of Tambov, a small region 400 kilometers from Moscow.

Pervyshov is one of the "heroes" of the invasion of Ukraine. As a reward for his military commitment, the former mayor and modest local MP, who volunteered to go to the front, was promoted to governor in November 2024. Since then, Pervyshov has been celebrated as a symbol: a figure of the new elite, decorated and honored, elevated after fighting.

Although Putin had just repeated to Macron his argument about fighting the return of Nazism in Europe, the Russian president was able to show, through Pervyshov, that war and victory remain his priorities. The conversation with the French president − viewed with mockery in Russia as a weak European − went unnoticed in the country. By contrast, the meeting with the governor, upheld as a model, received wide coverage on television.

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