Putin accuses the West of wanting to ‘rewrite history’ on yet another austere Victory Day

“Russia will do everything to avoid a global confrontation, but at the same time we will not allow anyone to threaten us,” Putin warned. According to the Russian leader, the West would also initiate armed conflicts and justify ‘the current followers of the Nazis’. “Our strategic forces are permanently ready.”

Putin spoke ahead of the annual military parade on Red Square, traditionally held on Victory Day, by far Russia’s most important holiday. Just like last year, the parade was remarkably sober, apparently because many of the normally displayed military vehicles were deployed at the front.

The only tank participating this year was a T-34, dating from World War II and a permanent part of the parade. At the end of the meeting, two squadrons of fighter planes flew over Red Square, after two consecutive years without an air show. Last year it was probably canceled due to a drone attack on the Kremlin a few days earlier. At the end, the number of participating soldiers was also reduced and many parades elsewhere in Russia were canceled altogether.

This year too, the parade was canceled in a number of regions for safety reasons. In Moscow, a parade was canceled under the title ‘The Immortal Regiment’, in which tens of thousands of people usually carry portraits of family members who died during the Second World War. A possible reason for this was the fear that this year too many people would bring photos of soldiers who died in Ukraine.

‘Our heroes’

Together with Putin, several thousand guests followed the parade from the stands, at a temperature of around freezing point. It was the coldest Victory Day in 25 years. Many older attendees were wrapped in warm blankets to brave the snow and biting wind. The leaders of six former Soviet republics – Belarus and the five Central Asian states – had responded to Putin’s invitation to attend the parade. The presidents of Cuba, Laos and Guinea-Bissau were also among those present.

Just like last year, the participating troops included soldiers who were deployed at the front in Ukraine, some of whom are returning after the parade. Putin called them ‘our heroes’ in his speech and emphasized that ‘all of Russia’ is behind them.

Their presence on Red Square was yet another signal that the emphasis of this holiday is shifting as the Second World War is further behind us and very few veterans remain. Two ‘real’ war veterans still flanked Putin in the stands, Aleksandra Alyoshina and Yevgeny Kurpatkov, both 100 years old. Last year he sat next to veterans of the Soviet security services, who had never taken part in the war.

Victory ahead

The bulk of Putin’s speech was not devoted to the events of the past, but to the present. The common thread of his argument is that his own ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine is in fact a continuation of the battle the Red Army waged against Hitler’s troops. Russia, Putin said, is waging a “just struggle” against “neo-Nazis.”

It is also significant that Putin ended his speech with the shout ‘For victory’, which refers to a victory that is still in the offing. He first did this during the military parade in 2022, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, and it now seems to be becoming a tradition. Previously, he always congratulated the Russians on the holiday at the end of his speech.