Thread: Russian Army Parade Victory Day, 2013 Парад Победы

HD Russian Army Parade Victory Day, 2013 Парад Победы

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x2ZK-dV3yk

Published on May 9, 2013

This is the parade in Moscow's Red Square, devoted to the 68th anniversary of the Great Victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War (what the Eastern Front of World War II is called in the former Soviet Union), 9 May, 2013. Giving the commemoration speech is Russian President Vladimir Putin. For the first time since 2008 the Suvorov and Nakhimov schools are once again marching past Red Square (The Suvorov cadets are also wearing their new uniforms cut in the same style of Russian Officers and Soldiers first introduced in 2008 ). Also being introduced this year is a Cossack regiment. Presiding over the military parade in Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation; General of the Army Sergei Shoigu. He is the first uniformed defense minister since the year 2000. Commanding the parade is Colonel General Vladimir Chirpkin. Music by the Military Orchestra Service of the Russian Federation, directed by Lieutenant General; Valery Khalilov.

Russia showcases military pomp for Victory Day

Fighter jets screamed over Red Square and heavy tanks rumbled over its cobblestones on Thursday as Russia flexed its military muscle on the anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

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3:30PM BST 09 May 2013
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The first decision to hold Victory Day parades was taken by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin himself after the country lost an estimated 27 million people defending its territory and the Eastern Front.

The tradition has been given extra fanfare by President Vladimir Putin – an ardent nationalist whose patriotic fervour has helped him win strong backing from the middle class.

The Victory Day parades have expanded during Putin's 13 years in power to include heavy intercontinental missiles and Tu-95 bombers that can easily reach the shores of the United States.



^{Mr Putin, Mr Medvedev and Mr Shoigu smiling as they watch the Victory Parade (Reuters)}

The tradition has been accompanied by a return of pro-Soviet rhetoric and a defence of Moscow's decisive role in the war that Putin alluded to on Thursday.

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"We will always remember that it was specifically Russia, the Soviet Union, that undermined the abhorrent, bloody, supercilious plans of the Nazis and kept them from controlling the world," Putin said at the nationally televised ceremony.

"Our soldiers saved freedom and independence by defending their motherland without sparing themselves, liberating Europe and claiming a victory whose grandeur will live on for centuries."



^{Russian military jets fly above the St Basil's cathedral (AFP)}
The entire ceremony was also shown live on state television in war-torn Syria – Russia's most important Middle East ally whose regime relies on support from Moscow to avoid sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad.

The 68th anniversary of what Russia still calls The Great Patriotic War included 11,000 soldiers marching in lockstep to a military band as huge banners reading "May 9" decorated the Kremlin's walls.

About 2,000 veterans proudly wearing chests full of medals were received by Putin for a special banquet reception in the Kremlin after watching the procession from the stands.



^{Vladimir Putin toasts with a WWII veteran (EPA)}
Putin downed the customary 100 grams of vodka with the veterans that soldiers received daily during the war.

"You toppled a vicious foe," Putin told the veterans. "You brought freedom to the people of the entire world."

The Russian leader – his macho image boosted by periodic televised spins in fighter jets and new tanks – has unfurled a 23-trillion-ruble (£480 billion) military spending plan over the coming decade that will see the deployment of 400 new ballistic missiles and 600 warplanes.

"We must modernise our defence industry as comprehensively as it was done in the 1930s," Putin said last year in reference to the worst years of Stalin's deadly political purges.



_{^{11,000 soldiers marched in lockstep to a military band (AFP)}}
The freedom not to condemn Stalin's atrocities under Putin has given new strains to the cult of personality that dictated Soviet life.

A group of Communist supporters on Wednesday even unveiled a bust of the wartime leader in the Far Eastern city of Yakutsk.

Putin's military plan has put pressure on other sectors of Putin's budget and on outdated Soviet-era military factories that are unable to cope with the sudden surge in demand for a new generation of weaponry.

Putin has expressed repeated frustration at the military churning out products such as tanks and weapons systems that cost more than their Western rivals while often failing in reliability tests.
The Kremlin chief said on Thursday that the extra military spending was needed to secure Russia's role as a guarantor of peace across the world.

"We will do all we can to strengthen security on the planet," he said.

Smaller Victory Day celebrations were held on the central squares of cities across Russia as well as at Moscow's Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Edited for Telegraph.co.uk by Barney Henderson

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ctory-Day.html

http://www.alipac.us/f19/russian-hel...9/#post1343472

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