MOSCOW VICTORY DAY
PARADE LARGEST EVER:
FOREIGN LEADERS ATTENDING
REPRESENT OVER QUARTER OF
GLOBAL POPULATION:
16,000 TROOPS AND NEW
MILITARY EQUIPMENT PARADE
IN RED SQUARE:
Moscow, Saturday, May 9, 2015; Thousands gathered with Russian Federation President, Vladimir Putin and many foreign Heads of State to watch the largest ever Victory Day Parade in commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Soviet and Russian people’s great victory over Fascist Germany in WW2 in 1945. The foreign leaders present represented over a quarter of the world’s population making nonsense of the Washington-Brussels axis claims that they had isolated Russia with their piddling sanctions and useless diplomatic boycotts. The major gathering of world leaders included:
President of China, Xi
Jinping; President of India, Pranab Mukherjee; President of South Africa, Jacob
Zuma; President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi; President of Cuba, Raul Castro;
President of Serbia Tomoslav Nicolic; President
of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro; President of Armenia, Serzh Sargystan; President
of Vietnam, Troung Tan Sang; President of Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, Kim Yong Nam; President of Mongolia, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj; President of
Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev; President of Kyrgystan, Almazek Atambayev; President
of Tajikstan, Emomali Rahmon; President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev; President
of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abass and UN Secretary General,
Ban Ki Moon;
The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, arrived by sea in a fleet of Chinese warships causing panic in NATO headquarters when they turned up in the Black Sea on their way to Russia.
(Full video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhsAXeZ-iWw
)
In all, around 30 international leaders
attended the parade, including heads of UNESCO
and the Council of Europe, although invitations were sent to 68 heads of state.
The UK was represented by the grandson of WWII leader British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, Nicholas Soames. A number of EU countries came under US
and/or EU pressure not to attend the Victory Day Parade, including the Czech
President Milos Zeman, who subsequently banned the US ambassador from functions
at Prague Castle. A number of WW2 veterans from the US and UK were present at
the victory day celebrations as private attendees.
The following countries opted not
to participate in this year's parade in Moscow, although most sent their
respective ambassadors as part of the diplomatic corps: Australia, Belgium, United
Kingdom, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, United
States, Finland, Croatia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia, Japan.
The 2014 acceptance of Crimea’s
application to join the Russian Federation and the subsequent war in Donbass,
Eastern Ukraine has caused a number of nations that fought in the WW2,
especially those that participated in the parade of 2010, to not participate in
the 2015 celebrations, including Germany, whose chancellor Angela Merkel
instead visited Moscow on 10 May to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier and meet with Vladimir Putin. Three days after the Victory Day parade,
the US secretary of state John Kerry laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier in Sochi with the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. A complete
reversal of recent US policy of sanctions and attempted isolation of Russia
which is obviously failing on the international scene with almost a quarter of
the entire population of the Globe represented by their leaders in Moscow last
Saturday.
Guest Military formations taking part were:
Armenian Army;
Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus;
Guest Military formations taking part were:
Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus;
Military Institute of the Kazakh Ground
Forces;
National Guard Unit of Kyrgyzstan;
The Grenadiers Regiment, Indian Army (first appearance);
Azerbaijani Land Forces;
Military Institute of Ministry of Defence of Tajikistan (first appearance);
Mongolian Army General Purpose Force;
Serbian Guards Unit (first appearance);
Beijing Capital Garrison Honor Guard Battalion, Beijing
Military Region, People's Liberation Army Ground Force (first appearance).
As per tradition, 26 other Russian major cities, St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg (Sevastopol
and Kerch in Crimea included) held their parades, and joint civil-military
parades were hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide, plus 4 fleet
reviews in Saint Petersburg (Baltic Fleet), Sevastopol (Black Sea),
Severnomorsk (Northern) and Vladivostok (Pacific).
The Donetsk People's Republic of Novorossiya, Eastern
Ukraine, held on 9 May in Donetsk the first public Victory Day parade of the "United
Armed Forces of Novorossiya" (military branch of the separatist Republic)
together with the federal level Ministries of Internal Affairs and Emergency
Situations. The situation was the same in the other seperatist anti-fascist entity
within Ukraine, Lugansk People's Republic, where on 9 May Lugansk's first ever
Victory Day parade was held, with participation of the United Armed Forces of
Novorossiya and the federal MVD and EMERCOM units of the People's Republic.
(See videos here:
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic celebrated the day with a
parade and other activities in Stepanakert on 9 May, also celebrating the 23th
anniversary of the Capture of Shusha during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
(For summary of the advance of the Soviet Red Army in 1945 see our archive here:
(See videos here:
(For summary of the advance of the Soviet Red Army in 1945 see our archive here:
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