/s3/static.nrc.nl/images/gn4/stripped/data100294084-c00682.jpg "“Putin’s Victory Day Speech and Tensions with Ukraine: A Report from Moscow”")
Russian President Vladimir Putin was not only present in Moscow’s Red Square, he also looked quite relaxed during the annual military parade in honor of the 78th Victory Day over Nazi Germany. Despite the austere ceremony, due to an increased risk of security incidents during Russia’s most important holiday, Putin pontifically took his place in the audience gallery, where he allowed himself to be surrounded by war veterans and a smaller party of foreign allies every year.
Although only the president of Kyrgyzstan had officially accepted the invitation, the leaders of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also attended. The presence of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko led to questions about his health. Journalists noted that his arm was bandaged, he was supported and had been absent from the celebratory breakfast that morning. Also present, but somewhat reluctantly because of the very tense relations with Moscow around Karabakh, was the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. His nemesis, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, was absent.
But there was no question of relaxation in Putin’s short, fierce speech on the sunny square. In a harsh tone he repeated all the ritual, now obligatory, but no less menacing messages, with which the Kremlin has been justifying the invasion of Ukraine for more than a year: Russia is being attacked from outside, the West is guilty of “international terrorism” and the world in war and damnation. In one go, he denounced the “disgusting, criminal ideology of superiority” of the “Western globalist elites” who, according to Putin, would “torment” the world with a cocktail of “conflict and hatred, Russophobia and aggressive nationalism.” And all this in order to impose a “system of theft, violence and oppression” on the world.
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‘Festive’ war atmosphere
He not only celebrated the WWII veterans – the eldest of whom is now 99 years old – but also praised all Russians now fighting in Ukraine, including the regular troops, the Wagner mercenaries and all military volunteers. “There is nothing more important now than your military work. Today, the security of our country, the future of our state and our people depend on you,” Putin said. And so, just like last year, he again effortlessly merged the Great Patriotic War, as the Second World War is called in Russia, with the current “special military operation” in Ukraine, the ultimate goal of which is unknown to everyone.
That not entirely insignificant fact was not allowed to spoil the atmosphere in the square. Elsewhere in Moscow, helped by the sunny spring weather, there was also a ‘celebratory’ atmosphere of war, with military demonstrations, reenactments of war scenes and civilians with the Z-war sign on their coats in support of the troops in Ukraine. At the end of the parade and speech, hundreds of soldiers’ throats sounded a thrice-hurray and Putin, apparently carefree, but surrounded by deviously spying bodyguards strolled down the square, while having a pleasant conversation with Uzbek president Shavkat Mirzijojev, after which he left the square for a flower laying at the monument to the Unknown Soldier.
Although the military parade went without visible incidents, the festivities were considerably austered on Tuesday. The traditional military air show did not materialize and the parade was smaller than in previous years. Only one old Soviet T-34 tank rolled across the square, prompting vitriolic comments on social media that the rest of the heavily outdated equipment is being deployed to the Ukrainian front.
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Limousine
The austerity was prompted by concerns following several drone attacks that Moscow attributed to Ukraine, including one against the Kremlin last week. In addition, Saturday’s (failed) attack in the Novgorod region on the well-known Russian bestselling author and war propagandist Zachar Prilepin, was claimed by the Crimean Tatar ‘partisan group’ Artesh. In at least twenty Russian cities, the celebration was completely canceled. Meetings of the Immortal Regiment, where Russians honor war veterans with photos and stories, were held online only.
Less celebratory was also the atmosphere on the Ukrainian front, where Putin may have hoped for a victory – however small – to mark the holiday. While Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, in full military regalia, standing on a shiny black Aurus limousine, inspected the troops on Red Square, Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, somewhere on the Ukrainian front, complained again in half an hour of video and several audio messages. about the lack of ammunition, with which the battle around the hard-fought town of Bachmoet, which has been fought over for months, must be settled in Russian favor.
Units on the run
Just last week, Prigozhin’s press office had published a video in which he, surrounded by dead Russian soldiers, demanded additional ammunition. Although this was promised, only 10 percent of it would actually have been supplied by the Ministry of Defence, the mercenary boss said in a diatribe laced with swear words on Tuesday. According to him, several Russian units have fled in recent days. “This is a war and the motherland must be defended. But instead of fighting, new intrigues are constantly unfolding in our country. We do not have a Ministry of Defense, but a Ministry of Intrigue, so our army is fleeing.”
In addition, he complained about the inaccessibility of the commander Sergey Soerovikin, who was appointed last year, and who was said to be in meetings all the time. Nor did Prigozhin hide his anger and suspicion towards Putin. “The grandfather who thinks he is doing well. But what should the country do, what should our children, grandchildren, the future of Russia do, and how to win the war, if by chance, I suppose, this grandfather turns out to be a complete bastard?”
2023-05-09 14:58:09
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