M0SCOW, 09 MAY, VICTORY DAY PARADE

Moscow, 09 MAY, 2012:

The 67^th Anniversary of the defeat of 
Nazi Germany in 1945 was marked as
usual in Moscow with the traditional 
massive military parade, repeated also
in Petersburg and more than 70 other 
cities of the Russian Federation.

14,000 marching troops and a large collection of military 

vehicles and equipment took part in the demonstration ending
with a fly-past of Russian Air Force helicopters, transport aircraft
and combat fighters.

The order of  the marching troops is as follows:

 

Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

        Russian Ground Forces

        Russian Air Force

        Russian Navy

        Russian Naval Infantry

        Russian Airborne Troops

        Strategic Missile Troops

        Russian Aerospace Defence Forces

    Border Guard of the Federal Security Service

    of the Russian Federation

    Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

    of the Russian Federation

    Ministry of Emergency Situations

Stirring music played by massed military bands of the Russian

Armed Forces added to the drama and atmosphere of the occasion

in the Russian capital’s historic Red Square, outside the walls of

the Kremlin, the centre of Russian Government since the capital was

moved from Petersburg back to Moscow after the socialist revolution

in 1917.

This year's combined military bands, conducted by 

LtGEN Valery Khalilov in his 10th Victory Day appearance
 as Senior Director of Music of the  Military Band Service of
the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, consists  of
more than 1100 bandsmen and for the first time in 3 years sees
the return of the Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov 

Moscow Military Music School's Corps of Drums leading
the parade into Red Square in its dark blue and red dress uniform,
popularly known as the Army Cadets, as it has always done since
the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945.

Colonel General Valery Gerasimov is this year's
Parade Commander while the Minister of Defence of the
Russian Federation, Anatoly Serdyukov, is the parade
 reviewing officer.

Watched by newly inaugurated President Vladimir Putin,  
Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and invited guests, the display
included Russia’s latest Intercontinental missiles and new

heavy mobile rocket launchers, tanks and mobile artillery.

President Putin made a brief speech promising
extended democracy throughout Russia, clampdowns on
corruption and development of international trade with
Europe and China as the basis of his third term of the

Presidency of the Russian Federation.

"Russia is consistent in its policy of strengthening
security in the world. We have a great moral right in
taking this principled and firm stand because it was our
country that took the brunt of the Nazi attack, met it with
historic resistance, traversed immense hardship,
determined the war's outcome, routed the enemy and
liberated the world's peoples" -  President Putin said.

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 12 BEALTAINE/MAY, 2012.