On May 9th of every year, Russia celebrates Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. There’s a military parade, and patriotic speeches (details here).
CNBC noted (here), “Moscow usually uses the high-profile event in Moscow to show off its military hardware, parading massive missile launchers, battle tanks and troops through Red Square,” but “this year is expected to be a smaller affair,” not least because a lot of Russia’s military hardware is now smoldering wrecks in Ukraine.
And what did Putin say from the podium above Lenin’s Tomb? About what you’d expect.
He claimed the “real war is being waged against our Motherland.” Never mind he started it, Ukraine was minding its own business, and all of the fighting is on Ukrainian soil.
Then he continued, “Russia wanted a peaceful future but … ‘Western elites’ were ‘sowing hatred and Russophobia’ and … Ukrainians had become ‘hostages to a state coup’ and the ambitions of the West.”
Translation into English: He didn’t like that a popular uprising of the Ukrainian people replaced Moscow’s puppet in Kyiv with a democratically elected government led by someone he can’t bully. As for being hated, yeah, that can happen when his troops go around murdering babies and bombing schools, apartments, and hospitals.
Wait a minute. Why do you need it translated? One picture says it all.
