The visual contrast is hard to miss. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky has largely replaced presidential suits with military-style clothing meant to show solidarity with troops fighting for the country’s survival.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Putin took the opposite path. For years, he projected control from behind long Kremlin tables in tailored civilian suits, maintaining distance between the presidency and the war. Now he is putting on a uniform. On Thursday, Putin appeared in full naval dress aboard the Pacific Fleet missile cruiser Varyag, overseeing exercises while threatening retaliation against Western commercial shipping. The wardrobe change matters because the Russia Putin is presenting has changed too. The death of the ‘normalcy’ myth For years, the suit helped sustain the Kremlin’s central fiction: Russia was conducting a limited “special military operation,” while normal life continued at home. That distinction is increasingly difficult to maintain. Putin first drew attention by appearing in camouflage at a Kursk command post in March 2025. His latest naval appearance goes further, presenting him explicitly as commander-in-chief of a country locked into a prolonged military confrontation. The uniform does not prove Russia has formally embraced “total war.” But visually, it acknowledges something the suit helped obscure: war now shapes the Russian state, economy and presidency.