With an air of moral superiority, the Russian president seems intent on teaching President Biden and other Western leaders a lesson.

By Anton Troianovski

KYIV, Ukraine — The world according to President Vladimir V. Putin looks like this: Russia is on the rise while the West is in chaos.

The West, spurred on by a new American president who is more anti-Russian than his predecessor, seeks Russia’s — and Mr. Putin’s — destruction.

And it is time for Russia, imbued with a moral authority and a thinning supply of patience, to hit back.

“They may think that we are like them, but we are different, with a different genetic, cultural and moral code,” Mr. Putin said last month, excoriating the United States. “We know how to defend our interests.”

As he masses troops near Ukraine, puts down domestic dissent and engages in a fast-intensifying conflict with President Biden, Mr. Putin is on the verge of decisions that could define a new, even harder-line phase of his presidency. On Wednesday, Mr. Putin is scheduled to deliver his annual state-of-the-nation address, a speech that could shed light on just how far he is prepared to escalate tensions with the West.

Now in his third decade in power, Mr. Putin, 68, appears more convinced than ever of his special, historic role as the father of a reborn Russian nation, fighting at home and abroad against a craven, hypocritical, morally decaying West.

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