Putin praises Soviet sacrifice
2005-05-09 10:41
Moscow - A sombre President Vladimir Putin on Monday paid tribute to the huge wartime sacrifice of the Soviet Union and called for unity against new threats as Russia held a lavish parade attended by dozens of world leaders to mark the 60th anniversary of the Allies' victory over Nazi Germany.
Fighter jets streaming smoke in the Russian blue, white and red tricolor screamed over Red Square as soldiers sang patriotic wartime songs.
Putin, flanked by US President George W Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said his country would never forget the debt owed to the tens of millions of Soviet citizens who died to defeat Nazism.
"I bow low before all veterans of the Great Patriotic War," said the Russian leader, describing May 9, 1945 - marked in Russia as Victory Day - as "a day of victory of good over evil, freedom over tyranny."
"The most cruel and decisive events unfolded on the territory of the Soviet Union," said Putin. "We know that the Soviet Union in those years lost tens of millions of its citizens."
The war "forces us to deeply recognise on what a ... precipice the world stood at that time, what monstrous consequences violence and moral intolerance, genocide and persecution of others, could lead to," he said.
Under overcast skies, white-haired veterans bedecked in gleaming medals and some waving red carnations drove down the cobbled square in green trucks as the audience cheered.
Soviet imagery
The ceremony, full of Soviet imagery, began with four goose-stepping soldiers dressed in ceremonial green and gold embroidered uniforms carrying a red flag with a hammer and sickle. This was a replica of the banner of the Red Army's 150th Rifle Division, which was flown from the top of the Reichstag on May 1, 1945, in Berlin after the building was seized.
The word victory was emblazoned on the Kremlin wall in several languages, including those of the vanquished.
The Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people during the conflict known here as the Great Patriotic War. Few families were untouched, and the holiday remains sacred across most of the former Soviet Union.
Putin alluded to that with a call for unity among the former Soviet republics - and the world.
"I'm convinced that there's no alternative to our fraternity, our friendship with our close neighbours. And Russia is prepared to build such ties with the rest of the world, that are strengthened not only by lessons of the past, but also by aspirations to our common future," he said.
Putin also drew a parallel between the war and the present-day threat of terrorism, saying today's generation must "build a world order based on security and justice ... and not to allow a repeat of either cold or hot wars."
He and the other leaders laid red carnations at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin Wall to honour soldiers who perished in World War II.
- AP