![]() ![]() German Chancellor Angela Merkel will, however, visit Russia on the day after the 9 May parade for talks with Putin. Speaking at his annual televised Q&A session with the nation in April, Putin accused the United States of "prohibiting" its allies from sending their heads of state to the event. "The fact that China's president will be in attendance is highly illustrative of Russia's new direction."Īlthough Putin – a native of Leningrad, the Soviet city that withstood an 872-day siege by Nazi forces – has attempted to play down the significance of the Western boycott, the snub has clearly angered him. "For Putin, the refusal of Western leaders to attend the Victory Day parade confirms that Russia and the West have irrevocably gone their separate ways," says Fyodor Lukyanov, Kremlin-connected chairman of the Moscow-based Council on Foreign and Defence Policy. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was also due to attend, in what would have been his first foreign visit since inheriting the leadership of the hermit kingdom in late 2011, but pulled out at the last moment. Instead, Putin will oversee the massive Red Square military parade in the company of Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with autocrats from former Soviet republics such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In a marked reflection of the rift between Russia and the West over the conflict in Ukraine, not a single Western leader, aside from Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, will travel to Moscow for the 70th anniversary of victory tomorrow on 9 May. The celebrations in Russia this month marking the end of the Second World War - better known across the former Soviet Union as the "Great Patriotic War" – will be in stark contrast to 10 years ago. Behind the two presidents that sunny May afternoon in 2005 were the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, all in Moscow to attend the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. Then Putin took his seat and shared a smile and a word with U.S. Security services in the capital of Moscow announced last week that they were closing Red Square to the public for an unprecedented two weeks in preparation for the military parade where Putin is expected to make an appearance.īaza, a Russian media outlet with sources in the security services, reported that the Russian ministry of defence was considering cancelling the aerial segment of the parade in both Moscow and St Petersburg, citing security concerns and a lack of trained pilots."Glory to Russia," intoned President Vladimir Putin, before his country's stirring national anthem boomed out across Red Square. Ukraine has previously used drones to strike deep inside Russian territory, in one instance hitting an airbase near Ryazan, a city just 150 miles from Moscow. There are signs that the authorities are also worried over drone attacks on its two biggest cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. “Of course, we are aware that the Kyiv regime, which is behind a number of such attacks, terrorist acts, plans to continue its line,” Peskov said when asked by reporters if there was a threat of Ukrainian attacks on the 9 May. Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stressed that the security services were “doing everything necessary to ensure security” on Victory Day. ![]() We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. A Ukrainian drone strike last week set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Russia has sustained a number of embarrassing incidents and attacks at its military bases over the course of the fighting, including in occupied Crimea. The cancellations came as Kyiv was making its final preparations for its much-anticipated counteroffensive. “Victory will be ours, like in 1945,” Putin said at the time. Last year during a speech, Putin said that the present-day Russian army was fighting in Ukraine “so that there is no place in the world for butchers, murderers and Nazis.” Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has further shifted the meaning of the celebration as Putin has sought to draw baseless historical parallels between the two wars, falsely framing Ukraine as a successor to Nazi Germany. The carefully orchestrated victory parades that take place across the country traditionally present the Kremlin with an opportunity to flaunt modern Russian military might. Victory Day, when Russians celebrate the 1945 endpoint of what they call the “great patriotic war”, has gradually become the centrepiece of Vladimir Putin’s vision of Russian identity over his two decades in charge. At least six Russian regions have cancelled their 9 May Victory Day parades ![]()
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