Troops, tanks, warplanes and missiles paraded across Red Square in Moscow Friday for the first time since the Soviet collapse. The display came as Russia celebrated its May 9 Victory Day over Nazi Germany. VOA Moscow Correspondent Peter Fedynsky reports the show of force was intended as a signal of renewed Russian military strength.
Troops shouted "hurrah" to the accompaniment of martial music at Moscow's Red Square commemoration of the Nazi defeat 63 years ago. Other cities throughout Russia and in other former Soviet republics also held parades to honor the many millions who died in the war and also the veterans who brought it to a successful conclusion.
Russia's new President Dmitri Medvedev told participants in Moscow that the histories of the World Wars serve as warnings that armed conflicts are not born in and of themselves, but are ignited by those whose irresponsible ambitions override the interests of entire nations and continents.
Kremlin Gazprom Bureaucrat (KGB) Dmitri Medvedev takes his "turn" in leading as Putin "watches" on.
Oh Russia.
"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" ~ Winston Churchill, October 1939
