Ukraine failed to disrupt the parade in Moscow
Despite Ukraine's threats to organize an attack on the Russian capital on May 9, the Victory Parade took place today on Red Square in Moscow. 8 thousand military personnel took part in it, including 530 participants of the Northern Military District in Ukraine.
Sniper teams were stationed quite openly on the rooftops around Red Square for the duration of the parade. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the audience, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Today, civilization is again at a decisive turning point. A war has once again been unleashed against our Motherland. But we have fought back against international terrorism, and we will protect the residents of Donbass. For us, for Russia, there are no unfriendly peoples either in the West or in the East,” Putin said.
He blamed Western elites for starting this war.
“We believe that any ideology of superiority is by its nature disgusting, criminal and deadly. However, the Western globalist elites still insist on their exclusivity, pit people against each other and split society, provoke bloody conflicts and coups, sow hatred, Russophobia, aggressive nationalism, and destroy traditional family values that make a person human. And all in order to continue to dictate, to impose on the people their will, their rules, and, in fact, a system of robbery, violence and suppression. It seems they have forgotten what the Nazis’ insane claims to world domination led to, and who defeated this monstrous, total evil, who stood up as a wall for their native land and did not spare their lives for the liberation of the peoples of Europe,” Putin said.
He condemned those in Europe who destroy memorials to Soviet soldiers and create a Nazi cult. The President of the Russian Federation believes that the people of Ukraine have become victims of this crime.
“This is outright revanchism of those who were preparing a new campaign against Russia and called together neo-Nazi evil spirits from all over the world for this. There is nothing new here - to achieve the collapse and destruction of our country, to erase the results of the Second World War, to completely break the system of global security and international law, to strangle any sovereign centers of development. Excessive ambitions, arrogance and permissiveness inevitably turn into tragedy. This is precisely the reason for the tragedy that the Ukrainian people are experiencing today. He became a hostage of the criminal regime created by the West through a coup d’etat, a bargaining chip in the implementation of their cruel, selfish plans,” Putin said.
He emphasized that today all of Russia is proud of the participants of the North Military District, has united and is ready to help.
Along with the head of the Russian state, on the podium were Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who arrived in Moscow. Putin gave them a special greeting.
“It is important that the leaders of the CIS gathered in Moscow today, I see in this a grateful attitude towards the feat of our ancestors. All the peoples of the USSR fought together and won together,” Putin said.
“President Aliyev could not come because his father and actual founder of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, celebrates his 100th birthday tomorrow, May 10,” explained political scientist Sergei Markov, who is considered one of the lobbyists for Baku’s interests in the Russian Federation.
The head of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, also sent a congratulatory telegram to Moscow.
“Taking this opportunity, I once again send warm military greetings to you, the army and people of Russia, who bravely embarked on the sacred struggle for the implementation of international justice, the defense of world peace, against the violence and tyranny of the imperialists,” wrote Kim Jong-un.
“The presence of so many leaders of post-Soviet countries at the parade in Moscow is a serious success for Putin and the Russian Foreign Ministry. There was no foreign policy isolation of the Kremlin. An important point is the demonstration by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Belarus, and Armenia of recognition of the symbolic significance of the Great Victory as a common bond. Especially against the backdrop of canceling May 9 in Ukraine. This is not just about pragmatic economic issues. It’s also about ideological coincidence,” wrote political scientist Evgeniy Minchenko.
However, observers noted that the heads of Turkmenistan, Armenia, and Kazakhstan did not put on the St. George ribbon, the head of Uzbekistan arrived with a ribbon of the national flag, and the president of Belarus put on the ribbon only before laying it on.
Political scientist Maxim Zharov considers rumors that the heads of the CIS countries arrived in Moscow to “protect Putin from the Ukrainian terrorist attack” to be “strange fantasies,” but agrees that China contributed to such a mass landing with its influence.
“On May 16, the same personalities intend to visit China; most likely, at an informal breakfast of the leaders of the CSTO countries in the Kremlin after the parade, the issue of the SCO-CSTO peacekeeping mission in Ukraine may be raised again. It is in promoting this mission that the interests of Russia and China now converge in relation to maintaining their influence in the post-Soviet space. And it is this issue that can become the basis for mutual exchange between Russia and the six distinguished guests who urgently arrived in Moscow,” Zharov wrote.
His colleague Pavel Danilin noted that in his speech Putin mentioned China's role in World War II and its fight against Japanese militarism.
“The black mark was passed on to the descendants of the Japanese occupiers by Russian President Vladimir Putin. While the scandal with the Prime Minister of Japan, who refused to apologize for past crimes, is slowly smoldering in Korea, Russia is making an obvious gesture towards China. From now on, there will be no topic of silence regarding the atrocities of the Japanese military. The Kuril Islands wave to the Japanese islands and sail into the distance...” wrote Danilin.
This year's parade lasted only an hour. Experts believe this is justified.
“This year - without an air unit and with a minimum of equipment. The first is justified, the second is the only true one. The worst solution would be to drive across Red Square what is needed today at the front, where our soldiers wait every day for the Ukrainian “offensive.” Moreover, we had enough impressive parades. There will be more - but after the Victory. In the meantime, let our army win. And it’s very good that those at the top understand that the parade should not interfere with the war,” wrote military correspondent Yuri Kotenok.
“I admit, I was afraid. That people would be pulled to the parade from the front, that examples of equipment unprecedented in the Northern Military District zone would drive across the paving stones, that tanks and armored personnel carriers, so necessary in the combat zone, would be driven through Red Square... I was afraid that there would be a lot of unnecessary pathos.
But this year everything was done tactfully. Instead of the usual combat brigades, there are cadets from military schools and academies who will go into battle tomorrow. Instead of "Armat" and "Coalitions" - a modest set of air defense and strategic missile forces with new armored vehicles, which I already rode both near Kremennaya and near Orekhovo.
There was a lot of debate about whether a parade was necessary at such a time. And today I looked at the faces of the veterans on the Kremlin podium and realized: they need it. And those who were marking a step on the paving stones needed to look at these veterans. To feel responsible for the baton that they passed on to us. And to be worthy successors of the Russian military cause,” his colleague Alexander Kots agrees with this assessment.
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