Russians gathered Thursday evening near Red Square in Moscow to attend the rehearsal of the military parade which will commemorate, on May 9, the end of the Second World War.
Posted at 10:16 a.m.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin used Victory Day to proclaim that Russia would defend its geopolitical interests.
According to him, ideas from Nazism were “brought up to date”, denouncing the return in the world of “racist discourse, national superiority, anti-Semitism and Russophobia”.
More than 12,000 soldiers as well as 190 vehicles and weapon systems – tanks and missiles – paraded in Red Square after the speech by the Head of State, who was surrounded by officials and veterans.
In more than 20 years in power, Vladimir Putin has made May 9 a symbolic moment in his power politics, exalting the sacrifice of the Soviets but also accusing his Western adversaries of historical revisionism by seeking to minimize the role of the USSR in the defeat of Adolf Hitler.