MOSCOW (AP) – Jet fighters roared and white-haired veterans rode military trucks Monday across Red Square as world leaders honoured the victors and victims of World War II, paying particular tribute to the Soviet Union’s massive sacrifice at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat.
Addressing a parade redolent with imagery from the communist era, President Vladimir Putin evoked the unity that brought victory but also stressed the Soviets’ huge role. The celebration brought together leaders of lands that faced off on the battlefields of the war or across bitter Cold War barriers in the decades that followed.
‘I bow low before all veterans of the Great Patriotic War,’ said Putin, using Russia’s name for World War II. He watched the parade from a podium in front of Lenin’s tomb, flanked by U.S. President George W. Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. On the Kremlin wall, the word ‘victory’ was emblazoned in several languages including those of the vanquished.
War raged in the Soviet Union for years after the Nazi invasion of 1941 before the Red Army began pushing the German forces back. An estimated 27 million Soviets died in the conflict.
Putin described May 9, 1945 marked in Russia as Victory Day as ‘a day of victory of good over evil, freedom over tyranny.’
Beneath overcast skies, the parade began with four goose-stepping soldiers in ceremonial gold-embroidered uniforms carrying a red flag with a hammer and sickle a replica of the banner flown from the top of the Reichstag in Berlin after the building was seized by Soviet troops a week before the Nazi surrender. Veterans adorned with gleaming medals rode green trucks.
Soldiers in modern and war-era uniforms infantrymen with red flags topped by Soviet insignia, tank troops with black padded helmets marched in tight formation, the slap of their boots echoing across the cobblestones. Jets streamed smoke in the Russian flag’s white, blue and red colours above the square after Putin’s speech.
While Russians have often complained that the Soviets’ wartime role is underrated in the West, Putin said that ‘we have never divided the victory between ours and theirs, and we will always remember the help of the allies,’ listing the United States, Britain, France and those who fought fascism in Germany and Italy.
‘Today we pay tribute to the courage of all Europeans who countered Nazism,’ a sombre Putin said.
However, he said, ‘the most cruel and decisive events unfolded on the territory of the Soviet Union.’ Listing fateful battles including Stalingrad, Kursk and the siege of Leningrad – where he was born in 1952 – Putin said that ‘the Red Army put a victorious end to the war with the liberation of Europe and the battle for Berlin.’
He and the other leaders laid red carnations and a huge carpet of red roses at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honour soldiers who perished in World War II.
They stood silently before an eternal flame at the tomb close to the re brick Kremlin wall, before heading inside for a reception.
Monday’s celebration was preceded by a summit Sunday of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of 12 former Soviet republics, and was to be followed Tuesday by a Russia-European Union summit. Along with Western heads of state, Putin’s guests included Asian leaders including Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
For Putin, hosting more than 50 leaders or top officials was a way to boost Russia’s profile in the world and cultivate his own image at home as a key international figure. Speaking at the reception, he drew a parallel between the Word War II and today’s threats from extremism and terrorism, saying that ‘we must strengthen our cooperation in the fight against this evil.’
But despite his calls for unity, Putin’s celebrations also opened up old wounds created during the war and in its aftermath, when the Soviet Union dominated eastern Europe for decades.
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