Watching the ritual May Victory Day parade as a correspondent in Moscow a couple of decades ago, I was always struck by its distinctive mix — a noisy exhibition of modern military power but also a day that harked back to past victories, with Second World War veterans waving forlorn carnations as tanks thundered up the main boulevard (workmen have to head out early the next day to fill in the potholes left behind).
Now the same parade, after a year of war in Ukraine launched by the Kremlin on its next-door neighbour, has turned into a sour and defensive affair, the ceremonials scaled back to fend off security risks. A sombre Vladimir Putin yesterday attempted to recast his conflict as a battle to protect Russia from an aggressive West and Volodomyr Zelensky’s “military regime”.
