Putin tells Red Square parade that Nazi ideas persist
9 May 2021, 11:34
The Russian president was speaking during the annual military parade in Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has marked the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe with a speech warning that Nazi beliefs remain strong.
Speaking during the annual military parade on Moscow’s Red Square, Mr Putin decried “attempts to rewrite history, to justify traitors and criminals, on whose hands lies the blood of hundreds of thousands of peaceful people”.
“Unfortunately, many of the ideologies of the Nazis, those who were obsessed with the delusional theory of their exclusiveness, are again trying to be put into service,” he said, without citing specifics.
The parade, whose format varies little from year to year, included more than 190 military vehicles, ranging from the renowned Second Word War-era T-34 tank to the hulking eight-axle Yars mobile ICBM launchers.
The anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat, which Russia calls Victory Day, is the country’s most significant secular holiday.
It commemorates the Red Army’s military feats and the vast suffering of civilians.
About 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians are estimated to have died in the war.
