Not even a splendid time has animated Vladimir Putin's bitterest Victory Day. The center of the capital, as empty of people as full of police, has been the perfect portrait of the mood that floats in the country around the offensive unleashed against Ukraine 14 months ago. The president insists, however, on subordinating the future of his people to his enterprise against Kiev, because he assures his people that Russia is surrounded by enemies who want its destruction. "We are proud of the participants in the special military operation; of all those who fight at the front, of those who protect it under fire and rescue the wounded. There is nothing more important now than your combat. The security of our country, the future of our state and our people, depend on you," Putin said, stressing the total identification of the future of his presidency with the future of Russia.
He has made Victory Day, which commemorates the USSR's triumph over Germany in World War II, the ideological basis of his government since he came to power more than two decades ago. On the 78th anniversary of the Nazi capitulation, Putin has insisted to his people that they are surrounded by enemies plotting for their total annihilation. "Their goal is to achieve the collapse and destruction of our country, erase the results of World War II, and finally crack the global security system and international law, strangle any center of sovereign development," Putin told his troops.
The Russian leader has assured during his speech that he has the unanimous support of the Russians in the invasion of Ukraine. However, the picture of the streets outside Red Square did not show that unconditional adherence at its worst. "The whole country has come together in support of our heroes. Everyone is ready to help, to pray for you," Putin said. That union was also not seen during the military parade in streets surrounding Red Square – closed to the public – like Novi Arbat, unlike other years.
Soldiers participate in the military parade, this Monday in Moscow.YURI KOCHETKOV (EFE)
Discouragement has weighed on Muscovites as well as threats of sabotage after last week's attack on the Kremlin – of which Moscow and Kiev accuse each other – and the desire to disconnect from the war. When it fell on Tuesday, many Russians have taken the opportunity to go on a bridge instead of taking to the streets in support of their own, despite the fact that Putin has reiterated on many occasions that Victory Day is a sacred day for the country.
In addition, this year's has been a military march discouraged by the pressing needs of the front. "What a shame of a parade, this year there hasn't been a single tank. Only BMP – armored personnel carriers – and missile launchers without warheads," was the summary of one of the spectators who preferred to remain anonymous.
"Any supremacist ideology is criminal," the Russian president said as his troops waged a war that has lasted more than 14 months against Ukraine, a country whose existence the Russian president has described as artificial in the past. In addition, Putin has ironically stated that for Russia "there are no hostile peoples neither in the West nor in the East", after noting that his country is the target of an alleged conspiracy of international Russophobia. "Like the vast majority of people on the planet, we want to see a future of peace, freedom and stability," he continued.
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War casualties
His war over Ukraine has caused a bloodletting that has no sign of ending soon. U.S. intelligence estimated in February that Russia had suffered between 189,500 and 223,000 casualties since the beginning of the invasion, including 35,500 and 43,000 deaths, The Washington Post revealed from documents leaked by a U.S. military on the Internet. That is, three times as many Russian soldiers would have lost their lives in one year than in the entire decade of the occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989). In addition, Ukrainian casualties reportedly ranged from 124,500 to 131,000 military personnel, including between 15,500 and 17,500 deaths.
Russian Cossacks march during the military parade through Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday. MAXIM SHEMETOV (REUTERS)
Column of Russian RS-24 Yars ballistic missiles head to Moscow's Red Square for the parade on Tuesday. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)
Russian servicemen arrive to participate in the military parade, on Tuesday, in Moscow's Red Square during Victory Day.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV (AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a speech in Red Square marking the 78th anniversary of Victory Day.SPUTNIK (via REUTERS)
Military parade in Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
General view of Moscow Square during the parade. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reviews soldiers in Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
A Soviet-era Russian T-34 tank is cheered during the parade. YULIA MOROZOVA (REUTERS)
Russian soldiers parade through Moscow's Red Square on Victory Day.YURI KOCHETKOV (EFE)
A launcher of intercontinental ballistic missiles Yars, during the parade on Tuesday in the Red Square of Moscow.MAXIM SHIPENKOV (EFE)
Russian soldiers parade through Moscow's Red Square on Victory Day.Alexander Zemlianichenko (AP)
Russian soldiers head to Moscow's Red Square to attend the parade on Tuesday. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)
Participants, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, follow the parade from the rostrum. SPUTNIK (via REUTERS)
Russian soldiers parade through Moscow's Red Square on Victory Day.DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (center) follows the parade from the rostrum. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)
Russian Cossacks take part in the military parade in Moscow on Tuesday.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV (AFP)
Putin has witnessed the parade accompanied by several veterans of World War II and several leaders of the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On the lapel of his coat, the president displayed a ribbon of St. George, a military badge of the tsarist empire that both the Soviet Union recovered during the fight against Nazism and the Kremlin in the 2000s. It is one of the imperialist symbols that have been banned in some former Soviet republics.
For security reasons and with troops on the Ukrainian front, the Kremlin has suspended the military parade in 24 cities in Russia, some of them located thousands of kilometers from Ukraine, deep in Siberia, such as Surgut and Khanty-Mansiysk. In addition, the marches of the so-called Immortal Regiment throughout the country have also been canceled. It is a citizen parade that emerged in 2012 with the blessing of the authorities. Although initially it consisted of carrying the portraits of parents and grandparents who suffered the Great Patriotic War, World War II for Russia, its promoters encouraged to carry this year the portraits of soldiers currently fighting in Ukraine.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, one of Putin's main allies, stands at Tuesday's parade in Moscow. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)
The parade has not been attended by any important representation of China, the main partner that Russia has today in the international community, although Putin has made a nod to Beijing, without which Western sanctions for the war in Ukraine would have knocked down its war machine. "We remember and honor the feat of Chinese soldiers in the fight against Japanese militarism," the Russian president said during his speech. The Kremlin has had the presence of the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military platform led by Russia since 1992 and which has only intervened so far to protect the president of Kazakhstan in the citizen protests of January last year.
In addition to the president of that Central Asian republic, the leaders of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Armenia have also traveled to Moscow to witness the parade. The latter country has recently threatened to leave the military alliance due to the Kremlin's inaction to stop the advance of its rival, Azerbaijan, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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