No one will threaten Russia, says Putin

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin accused the West yesterday of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world.“Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash,” Putin said on Red Square after Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reviewed troops lined up in a rare May blizzard.

Ukraine and the West say Putin is engaged in an imperial-style land grab. They have vowed to defeat Russia, which controls about 18% of Ukraine, including Crimea, and parts of four regions in eastern Ukraine. Russia says the lands, once part of the Russian empire, are now again part of Russia.

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War II, but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945.

In a pared-down parade, Russia showed off just one T-34 tank. It also featured Russia’s Yars intercontinental strategic missile which a TV announcer said has “a guaranteed capability to strike a target on any point of the globe”. Present were the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Laos and Guinea-Bissau.