Stepping out onto Red Square for today’s Victory Day parade in Moscow, it was clear to see that Vladimir Putin was in a good mood. Arms swinging with almost comic vigour as he walked, he sat down in the stands above Lenin’s mausoleum with a smug smile on his face. The pathetic fallacy of the flurries of snow on this uncharacteristically cold day were not going to interfere with his glee.
The Russian president has reason to be cheerful: two days ago, he indulged in his fifth inauguration ceremony in the Kremlin, handing himself another six years in power. The war in Ukraine is currently working in his favour; Ukraine has been struggling with a lack of troops, weapons and funding that has made repelling the advancing Russian troops increasingly difficult.
Although it’s meant to celebrate Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany, Putin has usurped the day’s meaning
Putin has always enjoyed the pomp and ceremony of Victory Day.
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