By my own will. Why the current victory parade turned out to be different from the previous one What foreign leaders were at the victory parade

He explained the absence of most foreign leaders at the Victory Parade in Moscow by the fact that the 72nd anniversary of the victory of the Red Army and the Soviet people over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 is not an anniversary date.

“Since it was not about the anniversary, there was no provision for any broad international participation,” the press secretary of the head of state quotes.

The presence of the President of Moldova among the guests on Red Square Peskov explained by the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin invited the Moldovan leader to attend this event during their recent meeting on the sidelines of the EurAsEC summit in Bishkek.

“Some other international participation was not envisaged,” Peskov stressed.

He also denied reports of an allegedly intentional increase in turnout at the Immortal Regiment memorial rally.

“There is no need to initiate increased participation. The fact is that the popularity of this action is so great that there is no need for additional organizational actions,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Igor Dodon attended the Victory Parade on Red Square - this is the first time in the last 15 years that the leader of Moldova took part in the events on the occasion of May 9 in Moscow. This is the third visit of Igor Dodon to Moscow since the beginning of this year.

A number of state and government leaders congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russians on Victory Day by sending corresponding telegrams. The President of Abkhazia , the President of Azerbaijan , the President of Armenia , the President of Belarus , the President of Kazakhstan conveyed their congratulations .

The Western press, which covered the Victory Parade this year, notes that for the Kremlin, victory in the war is becoming one of the foundations of legitimacy.

The Washington Post, reminding readers of the sacrifices suffered by the USSR in the fight against the Nazis, notes that, in the opinion of the Kremlin, “saving the world from fascism is the greatest achievement not only of the Soviet Union. It became the basis for Russia's return to the image of a great power after the Cold War.

In 2016, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev was the guest of honor on the podium. Nazarbayev was also the guest of honor of the President of Russia in 2015, when Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Victory, at which, due to the cooling of relations with Western countries, the leaders of Europe and the United States did not arrive.

The parade in 2015, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Victory over fascism, was ignored by most European politicians. This was caused by the deterioration of relations between Russia and Western countries after the development of the Ukrainian crisis. Most of the 30 foreign leaders who came to Moscow were representatives of the republics of the former USSR. The head of Cuba appeared in the stands among foreign guests

Speaking with a congratulatory speech on Red Square on the occasion of the Victory Parade, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the disunity of the states at that time did not allow the tragedy to be prevented.

“This monstrous tragedy could not be prevented primarily because of the connivance of the criminal ideology of racial superiority, because of the disunity of the leading countries of the world.

This allowed the Nazis to arrogate to themselves the right to decide the fate of other peoples, unleash the most cruel, bloody war, enslave, put almost all European countries at the service of their deadly goals, ”the Russian leader said.

It is worth noting that a similar phrase was also heard in the President's speech at the Victory Parade last year. He also mentioned that the aggressor "put the economic potential of almost all of Europe at its service."

Less foreign guests

Last year’s congratulations also included an invitation to other countries of the world to fight the global threat together: “We are obliged to defeat this evil, and Russia is open to join efforts with all states, ready to work on creating a modern, non-bloc system of international security.”

The main guest of honor of the President of Russia at the Victory Parade was the President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, who is not the first to visit Moscow in a few months after taking office.

Dodon came to power on socialist slogans, as well as on promises to get closer to Russia.

In 2016, the president of Kazakhstan was the same guest of honor on the podium. Nazarbayev was also the guest of honor of the President of Russia in 2015, when Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Victory, at which, due to the cooling of relations with Western countries, the leaders of Europe and the United States did not arrive.

The most representative was the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Victory, when the leaders of all major world powers came to visit Vladimir Putin. Among them, an honorable place was taken by the leaders of the allies - the President of the United States and the President of France, Great Britain was represented by the Deputy Prime Minister. Also among the guests of the parade were the then chancellor of Germany, the prime ministers of Japan, Italy and China.

The parade in 2015, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Victory over fascism, was ignored by most European politicians. This is due to the deterioration of relations between Russia and Western countries after the development of the Ukrainian crisis.

Most of the 30 foreign leaders who came to Moscow were representatives of the republics of the former USSR. Among the foreign guests, the head of Cuba, the secretary general, the general director, the leaders of Mongolia, Vietnam, Venezuela, and Serbia appeared on the stands.

Medvedev and Sobyanin left alone

During the Victory Parade this year, in the places for guests of honor, to the left of the president, there was the speaker and, in the second row was the head.

To the president's right, facing the stands, was Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who was separated from Putin by two veterans sitting next to him. The layout was similar in 2016.

In 2008, when Medvedev was elected president of Russia, both leaders sat next to each other. At the 2010 anniversary parade, Putin was on the right hand side of the Chinese leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In 2011, Medvedev and Putin were actively discussed in the blogosphere, who sat in the stands during the passage of troops, and did not get up, as statesmen did before. This caused a negative reaction from bloggers of both the liberal and patriotic camps.

The President of the USSR was also present at the parade in 2017, who in 2015 admitted in an interview that it became difficult for him to withstand such a ceremony.

In 1985, when the Victory Parade was held in Moscow for the first time in many years, Gorbachev, like the then Soviet leaders, received it from the podium of Lenin's Mausoleum.

After the end of the parade, Putin, shaking hands with statesmen who were sitting not far from him, left the stands together with the President of Moldova.

According to one of Gazeta.Ru's interlocutors, who watched the parade from close range, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin left the parade together with the head of the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko. The mayor of Moscow, like Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, left alone.

The Western press, which covered the Victory Parade, notes that for the Kremlin, victory in the war is becoming one of the foundations of legitimacy. The Washington Post, reminding readers of the sacrifices suffered by the USSR in the fight against the Nazis, notes that, in the opinion of the Kremlin, “saving the world from fascism is the greatest achievement not only of the Soviet Union. It became the basis for Russia's return to the image of a great power after the Cold War…”.

Moldovan President Igor Dodon promised to come to Moscow for a parade in honor of the 72nd anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. The leader of this country will participate in the celebrations on Red Square for the first time in fifteen years. Why the leaders of the once fraternal republics and the heads of Western states in recent years have so often rejected invitations to the Victory Parade - Lenta.ru found out.

Igor Dodon announced a visit to Moscow on May 9 back in April, promising to come to the celebration with his wife and son: “I received an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the festive events on Red Square. For almost 15 years, the presidents of Moldova did not come to Moscow that day, so I decided to go.”

In 2010, Mihai Ghimpu, the acting president of Moldova, declared that the "defeated" had nothing to do on this holiday. “How can I participate in the parade next to the army that brought communism, organized famine and deportations to Siberia? This army was also at the heart of the formation of Transnistria,” he explained.

Claims since the USSR

Grievances with the Soviet past forced two more presidents to refuse to attend the celebrations in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Victory in Moscow. In 1995, when the Russian authorities first invited foreign leaders to the parade, not only representatives of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition came, but also the leadership of Germany.

Lithuania and Estonia refused to participate in the event, and both states hesitated for a long time with official explanations. Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus subsequently expressed the hope that Moscow would not be offended by his decision to stay in Vilnius, but expressed the opinion that his country suffered after the war for almost 50 more years. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip was more specific and harsher: “The victory in World War II was a great victory over fascism, but it was followed by the occupation of the Baltic states. The Soviet Union made a big mistake."

There were also claims to Moscow on the current agenda. In 2005, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili canceled his visit three days before the parade. “So far we are in a situation where there is nothing much to celebrate in Moscow,” he said. Saakashvili was dissatisfied with the fact that Russia was in no hurry to make a decision on the speedy withdrawal of Russian bases from the territory of Georgia, which Tbilisi insisted on. The President of Georgia called his decision the act of a "proud leader of a democratic state." Now the Georgian president is not invited to the parade: diplomatic relations between the countries have not been improved since 2008.

Ukrainian factor

A wave of collective refusals began in 2014 - after the change of power in Kiev, the conflict in the south-east of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. In 2015, criticism from abroad in May already looked familiar and expected. Kiev repeated that “under the conditions of Russian aggression” the participation of representatives of Ukraine in the parade is unthinkable.

Many others did not come, including US President Barack Obama. “The reason is in Ukraine. And this is a decision not only of Obama, but also of most leaders of European countries and, perhaps, other regions,” explained US Ambassador John Tefft. According to him, there was “a feeling that during the parade in Moscow they would also celebrate what happened in Ukraine.”

During the preparations for the anniversary, the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the decision of German Chancellor Angela Merkel would play a special role "in disrupting the anti-Russian campaign". She, however, chose a compromise option: she refused to attend the parade because of the situation in the Donbass, but arrived in Moscow the next day, May 10.

Traditionally, there was no Moldovan leadership, although the motives for refusal have changed. President of the country Nikolai Timofti made no secret of the fact that he was acting in solidarity with the Europeans: almost all of them canceled their visits in connection with the events in Ukraine.

Only Tallinn's explanations did not change, which, even against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis, continued to recall the Soviet occupation, refusing to go to the celebrations in Moscow.

In the end, just over 20 of the 68 invited leaders agreed with the Russian side. Some of the Europeans arrived even despite criticism and sanctions. Czech President Milos Zeman even argued with the American ambassador in Prague over this. He expressed dissatisfaction with Zeman's intention to attend the celebrations in Moscow and received a stern rebuke: “I cannot imagine the Czech ambassador in Washington advising the American president where to go. And I will not allow any ambassadors to interfere in the plans of my foreign trips.”

Personal and presidential affairs

Washington and other world capitals ignored the parade not only for political reasons: on May 9, 2010, Obama could not be in Moscow, as he was receiving his Juris Doctor degree from Hampton University. In 2015, when everyone was talking about the Ukrainian crisis, some leaders also referred to personal employment. So did, for example, French President Francois Hollande and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

But more often they were dissuaded by internal state affairs. Seven years ago, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi canceled a visit to Moscow because of the financial crisis. His office explained that overcoming problems requires constant contact. For the same reason, French President Nicolas Sarkozy stayed in Paris.

Probably, there will be no Parisian guests this time either: the day before, presidential elections were held in the country, as a result of which the leader of the Forward! Emmanuel Macron.

Representatives of the United Kingdom also missed the holiday in Moscow because of the elections. So, in 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, during a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced that he would not be able to attend the parade. Putin was sympathetic, congratulating Blair on his birthday and his party's election victory.

Relationships without invitations

In the Kremlin, as a rule, refusals are taken calmly, emphasizing that the parade is held not for foreign guests, but primarily for veterans. In the situation of the mass boycott of 2015, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that five years before that, there were also few high-ranking foreign persons, although neither the events in the Donbass nor the annexation of Crimea had yet happened.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasizes that his colleagues always have the right to choose, although he expresses doubts that they all make this choice on their own: “Someone does not want to, someone is not allowed in the Washington regional committee. Some may even feel ashamed, but let them decide for themselves.”

The leader of neighboring Belarus, meanwhile, condemned colleagues who use the refusal for political purposes. “Another thing is when you are busy at home,” he noted. Before the 70th anniversary of the Victory, when the list of guests was unusually small, Alexander Lukashenko's plans were followed with special attention, but he did not live up to expectations. “In Belarus, according to the constitution, except for the commander-in-chief, no one can receive the parade. On May 9, we will have our own parade like in Moscow,” said Lukashenko, who, however, during the years of his presidency attended parades in the Russian capital more often than in Minsk.

In Kazakhstan, a solemn military march in honor of the Victory last year was abandoned, and the country's president went to events in Moscow. As a result, Nursultan Nazarbayev received a special thanks from Putin. “This is a sign of our special relations, allied relations, we are very pleased, we want to thank you for this,” the Russian leader said.

Nazarbayev, like other guests, arrived at the parade in 2016 without a traditional invitation. They simply stopped sending them out, the Kremlin explained, but emphasized that all guests would be welcome. Among them, probably, will again be the President of Kazakhstan - after all, the parade in Astana has already taken place.

The last time the Victory Parade on Red Square gathered a relatively large number of guests from abroad was in 2015, when Russia widely celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War. Since then, Moscow has moved away from the tradition of annually officially inviting world leaders to take part in the next parade. But she invariably emphasized that she would be glad to everyone who wants to attend the celebrations on their own initiative. In 2018, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be such guests. The latter decided to combine the desire to pay tribute to the memory of the soldiers who liberated the world from the Nazis, with the need to discuss the topics of Syria and Iran with Vladimir Putin.

Russia adhered to the tradition of inviting world leaders to the Victory Parade if it was a round date. A significant number of heads of foreign states and governments visited Moscow on the occasion of the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the Victory, that is, in 1995 and 2005. Then about fifty high-ranking foreign guests gathered in the Russian capital. In 2005, this list, in particular, included the then US President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, French President Jacques Chirac and an impressive number of leaders of the CIS countries and Asian states.

In 2015, when Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Victory, the composition of foreign participants turned out to be more modest - the heads of 25 states took part in the celebration, although then official invitations were sent to 68 foreign leaders, as well as the heads of the UN, the European Union and the Council of Europe. Due to disagreements between Russia and the West, not one of the leaders of the EU member states reached Moscow that year under the pretext of being busy with internal political affairs.

The honorary guests of the Victory Parade in 2015 were the head of Cuba, Raul Castro, the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, as well as the leaders of China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Venezuela and Serbia.

In the future, Moscow did not send out any special invitations to the Victory Parade. But at the same time, the Kremlin has always emphasized that they would be happy to those who want to come themselves. In 2016, the President of Kazakhstan Narsultan Nazarbayev became an honorary foreign guest on the podium. Last year, President of Moldova Igor Dodon arrived in the Russian capital - he became the first Moldovan leader in almost a decade and a half to attend the celebrations on Red Square on May 9.

This year, on the day of the 73rd anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be honored foreign guests.

On the eve of the event, the Serbian leader intends to meet with his Russian counterpart to discuss bilateral and regional issues. Alexander Vučić, according to him, does not intend to interfere in global topics, since he is “not an interlocutor” in them. What can not be said about the second distinguished guest.

As the press service of the head of the Israeli prime minister recently reported, after the Victory Parade, Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at which he will present to his colleague all the details of the documents obtained by Israeli intelligence on the Iranian nuclear dossier. As you know, now the nuclear deal concluded by Tehran and the "six" (five member countries of the UN Security Council + Germany) is in jeopardy due to the US declared intention to withdraw from it.

Russia and Israel have long been drawn together by a sharp rejection of anti-Semitism and attempts in a number of Western countries to glorify Nazi accomplices. Last year, Israel became the only country whose parliament stood in solidarity with Moscow, condemning in a special statement the demolition of monuments to Soviet liberators in Poland. But this time, the topic for which Benjamin Netanyahu is flying to Moscow on May 9 does not arouse such unanimity among the parties. If Israel, like the United States, believes that the deal is ineffective and does not guarantee Iran's refusal to develop a nuclear arsenal, then Russia proceeds from the fact that breaking the agreement is by no means worth it.