DMITRY Medvedev, the president of Russia, yesterday warned against "irresponsible ambitions" that lead to war, as tanks and missile-launchers rumbled over Red Square in a show of fire-power not seen since the fall of the Soviet Union.
In his first major public event since taking office, Mr Medvedev told 8,000 troops and guests at a ceremony to mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany that Russia would not tolerate "disrespect for international law".
War veterans boasting ches
tfuls of medals applauded, some with tears in their eyes, as supersonic fighter jets and bombers screamed overhead in formation and impeccably uniformed, goose-stepping honour guards saluted the Russian flag.
"We must treat very seriously any attempt to sow racial or religious enmity, foment the ideology of terror and extremism or meddle in other states' affairs, especially by redrawing borders," Mr Medvedev said.
Anatoly Serdyukov, the defence minister, rode past the massed ranks of troops in an open-top limousine to take their salute, barking congratulations on the 63rd anniversary of Russia's Second World War victory, which cost more than 20 million lives.
An emotional Vladimir Putin, the former president and newly-appointed prime minister, sat next to Mr Medvedev on a viewing platform listening to a brass band and watching the parading troops, but did not speak.
It was Mr Putin who, as president, ordered the revival of the Soviet tradition of parading military hardware through Red Square on Victory Day for the first time since 1990. Mr Medvedev succeeded him as president on Wednesday.
Polls showed the decision was popular with most Russians, hoping to restore some of Russia's greatness and power after the chaos that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
But experts say that for all Mr Putin's new investment in the military – an eightfold increase to an annual £20 billion during his eight years in office – it still has a long way to go to restore its Soviet-era might.
Much of the spending has been squandered through cronyism, mismanagement and corruption, it is said. "Our armed forces are merely a bad copy of the Soviet army," said Vladimir Dvorkin, a retired general and a former arms control expert with the Russian defence ministry.
Ignoring the controversy, veterans were proud to see tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and nuclear-missile launchers back in Red Square. "We can sleep easily at night with an army like this," said Yakob Vasilyevich, who was a pilot in the Second World War.
Gesturing to the Tu-160 supersonic bomber whistling overhead, he added: "That can carry ten nuclear bombs – if we used them, it would be as if Europe had never existed."
Mr Putin denied this week that the parade was intended as sabre-rattling. "However, it is a demonstration of our growing potential in the defence sphere," he said.
Military attachés from Russia's traditional arms clients – Venezuela, India, China and Africa – turned out in force for the parade, many snapping shots of the 46-tonne T-90 tanks and videoing the giant Topol-M nuclear-missile launchers. But Western military analysts say Moscow's shows of force mask deep, unsolved problems of men, equipment and money inside the armed forces. Front-line troops are still badly paid, poorly housed and rely on outdated weaponry, they said.
The authorities were keen to bury some Communist traditions. Mr Medvedev and Mr Putin watched the parade from a viewing platform, rather than from atop the mausoleum containing the body of Lenin as Soviet leaders used to do.
The mausoleum was shrouded in a hoarding bearing the Russian flag, hiding it from view.
The full article contains 612 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
