Putin celebrates "invincible" Russia in modest 1945 commemorations

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Vladimir Putin celebrated an “invincible” Russia on Saturday, during the commemoration of the victory over Nazi Germany, a ceremony without pomp and without a big military parade because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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May 9, with its grand parade of armaments, usually symbolizes the offensive foreign policy of the Russian president who in recent years has orchestrated the return of Russian power on the international scene. This time, speaking under a light rain after having laid roses before the flame of the unknown soldier at the foot of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin saluted in a brief and sober speech this " sacred  " day  and the memory of the veterans , without speak directly of the pandemic, which is progressing in Russia.

"  We pay eternal homage to the great sacrificial prowess of the Soviet people,  " said Vladimir Putin, who made May 9 a pivotal element in his policy of greatness and the patriotism he advocated. "  We know and we firmly believe that we are invincible when we are united,  " he added, before a minute of silence.

Around him, soldiers in ceremonial uniforms stood at attention and at a good distance from the Head of State, who has been confined to his residence in the suburbs of Moscow for several weeks.

Containment extended to Moscow until May 31

The commemorations of the defeat of Nazi Germany, celebrated each year with great fanfare, therefore took place on Saturday without a military parade in Red Square, without thousands of Muscovites in the streets and without a floor of foreign leaders surrounding Vladimir Putin. Only the aerial part of the parade was maintained with dozens of fighter, reconnaissance, supply aircraft and helicopters flying over Moscow. Above Red Square, a squadron drew the Russian flag in the sky with smoke bombs.

Vladimir Putin has therefore promised that the country will mark  the victory in the Second World War " appropriately " at a later date  , in which some 27 million Soviets perished. For weeks, the Kremlin had hesitated to continue the festivities before postponing them in the face of the worsening epidemic . Russia had more than 198,000 confirmed cases and 1,827 dead on Saturday, more than half of them in Moscow, which extended its confinement until May 31.

To replace the parade of the "Immortal Regiment", which brings together hundreds of thousands of people in the streets taking portraits of veterans, the Russians were invited to go out on the balconies in the evening with photos of their loved ones who had fought and to sing a famous Soviet song.

If Russia has canceled its military victory parade, this is not the case for all its allies: Belarus, whose President Alexander Lukashenko regularly denounces the "  psychosis  " of the coronavirus, has maintained it, as has Turkmenistan , officially spared by the pandemic and which is organizing it for the first time.

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• Russia
• Vladimir Poutine
• Coronavirus
• Second World War

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