Like every year, the Russian president supervised the May 9 military parade on Red Square, a central piece of the Kremlin’s narrative meant to exalt the country’s power. More than 9,000 soldiers, according to Russian media. Armored vehicles, missile launchers and aircraft took part in particular. A more modest parade than before the war in Ukraine, but still in the hardening confrontation with the West.
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From our correspondent in Moscow,
A single tank on Red Square. This is the legendary Soviet T34 tank used 80 years ago. And in total, according to the calculation of independent observers, three times less equipment and five times less aviation than in 2021. Russian equipment is obviously in Ukraine.
The speech remains in tune with what the government wants as the annual highlight of the regular demonstration of its military power and its desire for confrontation with the West.
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“ There Russia will do everything to avoid a global confrontation. But, at the same time, we will not allow anyone to threaten usasserted Vladimir Poutine. Our strategic (nuclear) forces are always on alert. We reject the claim to exclusivity on the part of any state or alliance. »
The Russian head of state greeted “ special operation heroes » and unlike last year, when he watched the parade in the company of veterans of the secret services – the KGB and its ancestor the NKVD – this time Vladimir Putin was shown sitting next to well-known veterans.
The Kremlin knows it: this third spring of a long war worries even some of its most loyal supporters, so the power seeks to display and praise as much as possible the cohesion of a country which would march like its army: in ranks tightly behind its president.