Russia victory parade mostly mask-free
Putin presides over celebration marking 75 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany
MOSCOW — Putting to one side Russia’s unfinished battle against the coronavirus, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday celebrated his country’s victory 75 years ago against Nazi Germany, presiding over an enormous military parade through Red Square that featured thousands of soldiers marching shoulder-to-shoulder without face masks.
The parade, the largest of several celebrations taking place nationwide, originally was scheduled for May 9, a joyous annual holiday known as Victory Day, but was delayed for six weeks by the coronavirus pandemic.
The outbreak continues to grow in Russia — the world’s third-hardest-hit country, with nearly 600,000 cases — but at a slightly slower pace than before.
Aging veterans in their 80s and 90s joined Putin on the reviewing stand, nearly all of them without masks, to watch 14,000 troops march in tight formation to martial music. Tanks, missiles and other military equipment then trundled through the square in front of the Kremlin, followed by a flyover by strategic bombers, fighter jets and helicopters.
Putin, who has spent most of the past three months cooped up at his country residence, is hoping that the Moscow parade, one of dozens held across the country Wednesday, will help lift the gloom that has settled over his rule in recent weeks. The crisis has sent his approval rating to its lowest level since he came to power 20 years ago.
Having staked so much of his previous popularity on Russia’s re-emergence as a major global power, Putin on Wednesday basked in the glory of Russia’s immense role in the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and the liberation of Europe during World War II.
“It is impossible to even imagine what would have happened to the world had it not been for the Red Army that stood up to defend it” against fascism, he said in a speech at the start of the parade.
The Soviet Union lost up to 27 million lives during World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. Putin has made the victory over fascism the touchstone of Russia’s collective identity, while also using it as a propaganda battering ram against the West.
Few foreign leaders were on hand to hear his message.
European leaders stayed away, with a few exceptions: Serbian Presient Aleksandar Vucic and the leaders of Moldova and Belarus, former Soviet republics, attended. President Emmanuel Macron of France and others had planned to attend the previously planned parade in May but skipped the rescheduled event.
China and India, vying for Russia’s support after recent clashes between their armies in a remote border region, sent senior officials and also soldiers, who took part in the parade. China sent the largest foreign contingent.
The military parades began shortly after midnight Moscow time Tuesday evening in Kamchatka on the Pacific Ocean and then rolled across the country’s 11 time zones.
As the main parade was winding down in Moscow, troops began marching in Kaliningrad, a former German territory known as East Prussia that was seized by the Soviet Union after Hitler’s defeat.
Kremlin critics have accused Putin of gambling with public health to put himself at the center of a gigantic display of Russia’s military might and to rally support ahead of a nationwide vote on his future. Voting on constitutional amendments that would allow Putin to stay in power until 2036 begins Thursday.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged residents to watch the parade on television instead of thronging the streets of the city as they usually do. Thousands of people still went outside to watch, but the crowds were smaller than usual.
Yelena Loginova, a 36-year-old psychologist who traveled 500 miles to see the parade, said she had ignored the mayor’s advice to watch the events on TV because it was “much more interesting” to see them in person.
“You immediately have totally different emotions than on television,” she said. “You feel it directly when the heavy ones drive by. The asphalt shakes under your feet.”