In his speech, Vladimir Putin claimed that a war has been started against Russia. The Russian president had nothing new to offer his citizens, writes ‘s Russia correspondent Heikki Heiskanen.
MOSCOW No surprises were expected and there were none. the president of Russia Vladimir Putin the speech on the Red Square on the day of the victory was a repetition of the old one.
Putin again equated Russia’s war against Ukraine with the events of World War II. He painted a picture where Russia is not the aggressor but the defender.
– Today, civilization is once again on the verge of a decisive breakthrough. A real war has again been unleashed against our native country, but we have given a counterattack to international terrorism, we also protect the residents of Donbas and guarantee our own security, Putin said.
Some things are allowed for some but not for others. Many critics of Putin’s war have been taken to court for using the word “war”. In official parlance, Russia is still conducting a military special operation.
What is relatively new is that the Russian leadership has begun to increasingly use the terrorism card in its rhetoric against Ukraine.
This was seen last week, for example, when Russia announced that Ukraine had attempted a drone attack on the Kremlin. Russian politicians even compared Ukraine’s leadership to the ISIS terrorist organization.
Putin said that Russia wants peace with all nations, but according to him, the western “globalist elites” are the opposite.
According to Putin, these drive people against each other, break up societies, provoke bloody conflicts and coups, incite hatred, anti-Russian and aggressive nationalism.
In the past, Putin has also adopted formulations from extreme right-wing circles in the United States. In their paranoid images, the “globalist elites” incite uncontrolled immigration and erode traditional values and gender roles in order to weaken the nations in their grip.
The war was visible in the Red Square parade, which seemed to have less equipment than in previous years. The air force flyover was also missing.
This year, the leaders of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus were included in the parade. The presence of many was only confirmed at the very last minute.
Since Russia launched its major invasion of Ukraine last year, no head of state was a guest at the parade. The Kremlin announced that no one had been invited.
Perhaps the Russian leadership now wanted to show that it still has influence in the territory of the former Soviet Union.
Foreign press from “unfriendly countries” was apparently not needed at Red Square this year. didn’t get accreditation there either.
The Red Square was closed to the public exceptionally already two weeks before the Victory Day celebrations.
The fact that citizens’ “Immortal Regiment” marches were left out of the repertoire throughout the country can be seen as cutting out all kinds of elements of the national celebration. On the marches, pictures of relatives who participated in the war have been carried as a memory of the sacrifices that were required to defeat Nazi Germany.
The reason may really have been security concerns. On the other hand, those in power were perhaps not sure how the current war would be reflected in citizens’ commemorative events.
There is always a small element of unpredictability in the people’s forces, and the Russian leadership does not want any surprises.
The rulers of Russia have slowly modified the emphases of Victory Day to suit their political needs.
If earlier the day was marked by a deep undertone of sadness in a country that lost millions of people in the war, during Putin’s era, pride in victory and military might has been accentuated year by year.
In Ukraine, that power has taken a bad dent in its side, and thus the victory day parade was also weaker than before.