Moscow celebrated Victory Day, which commemorates the end of World War II, with a parade as is customary. However, due to threats of retaliation from Ukraine on this anniversary, security considerations limited their size. There were, however, over 150,000 people who took part in parades in 300 other Russian cities and towns. Hackers broadcast the Moscow parade on both Ukrainian and Latvian television. President Putin attended the Moscow parade together with a 101-year old veteran of the battle of Stalingrad. Presidential Spokesman Dmitri Peshkov noted that, while there were some events celebrating the anniversary in the West (on May 8), there were no invitations sent to Russia to attend these. While there were no Western leaders in attendance in Moscow, the heads of state of the CIS countries, and of Cuba, Laos, and Guinea-Bissau attended.
In his speech, Putin compared the situation at the end of the war to the threat that Russia was facing today, with NATO supporting the same fascist forces in Ukraine that wanted to eliminate Russia. He accused the West, which is aiding Ukraine with military and humanitarian supplies, of distorting facts about World War II, putting Nazi collaborators on pedestals and demolishing memorials to fighters against Nazism. “Revanchism, mockery of history, the desire to justify the current followers of Nazis are part of the general policy of the Western elites to incite everything, new regional conflicts, interethnic and interreligious enmity, to contain sovereign, independent centers of world development,” Putin said.
