Posted on 05/07/2010 2:12:30 PM PDT by Shermy
More than 10,500 Russian soldiers will march for the first time alongside troops from the United States, France, Britain and Poland in a larger-than-life parade to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany this weekend, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Thursday.
The Victory Day parade, which will start at 10 a.m. Sunday, will also include servicemen from nine other former Soviet republics, and 25 foreign leaders are to join President Dmitry Medvedev in the stands to watch the procession on Red Square.
The one-hour parade will feature six types of defense equipment for the first time — the Pantsir-S1 and Buratino air-defense systems, the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile, the Yak-130 trainer and the Mi-28 and Ka-52 helicopters, Vedomosti reported.
A total of 161 tanks and missiles will roll through the square, and 127 aircraft will soar over it, Serdyukov said.
Rehearsals for the parade have been going on for the past week, shutting down traffic in downtown Moscow for several hours every day.
“We see preparations for the parade as an element of our military preparedness,” Serdyukov said in an interview published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
The foreign troops are training together with their Russian counterparts.
“I think they are just as glad to take part in the parade as we are,” Serdyukov said.
On Wednesday, Defense Ministry officials presented the visiting servicemen with commemorative medals in red boxes for participating in the parade.
Serdyukov said the USS Blue Ridge and USS Kaufman warships would make friendly calls to Vladivostok and Murmansk on Sunday. The French anti-submarine frigate Latouche-Treville will also visit Murmansk.
Among the foreign leaders planning to attend are French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan will watch their troops march on Red Square. Kyrgyzstan will be represented by the head of the interim government, Roza Otunbayeva.
Creating a minor flap, the Defense Ministry first rejected and then approved an application by the Turkmen commander to lead his troops on horseback. The only commander to lead the troops on horseback previously was Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukov during the first Victory Day parade in 1945.
Acting Moldovan President Mihai Ghimpu, whose government ousted a Russia-friendly regime last year, declined an invitation to attend this year’s parade, and his country will be represented by its ambassador to Moscow. Moldova earlier balked at sending troops to the parade, citing the cost, but will be represented by a contingent.
Troops from Belarus and Ukraine will also march, but their countries’ leaders opted to attend Victory Day parades at home instead of in Moscow.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who fought a brief war with Russia in August 2008, was not invited, Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko said.
In total, more than 102,000 Russian troops will take part in military parades around the country, Serdyukov said.
Streets near Red Square will be partly closed to traffic from 5 a.m. Sunday until the end of the parade, including Tverskaya Ulitsa, Novy Arbat, Novinsky Bulvar, police said.
I wonder if there will be pictures of our troops marching behind portraits of Stalin.
I wonder if our troops will be marching along with troops that invaded Georgia.
Paraphrasing a Polish General: ‘With the Germans you lose your life, with the Russians you lose your soul’
Or a Polish soldier sees a Russian soldier and a German soldier, which one does he shoot first?
The German of course, business before pleasure.
Moscow, which is sure to be decorated with the standard communist icons and flags.
Plenty of photo ops for allied troops in that setting.
The Ruskies will certainly parade march in Red Square, (that's the goose step for you young 'uns).
There are gonna be some Europeans wettin' their pants over this.
The Reds were just as wretched as the Nazis.
Had Hitler not been so paranoid, he could have handed out rifles to the Russian civilians, who would have gladly marched to Moscow with him.
Instead, he wound up 60 miles short.
“Among the foreign leaders planning to attend are French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Hu Jintao. “
Who WON’T be attending? Prime Minister of UK and neither Barack Obama or Joe Biden. And not because they are busy, but because Putin doesn’t want them there!
Which brings me to question, why are our troops going if our leaders aren’t invited? Is Obama THAT much of Putin’s buttboy that he will publically be snubbed this way?
What? Polish and French troops, but no Canadians who fielded more than 1 million armed forces and took almost 100,000 casualties in WW2 ?
Must be part of Euro revisiionist history.
Stalin started WW2. See “Chief Culprit: Stalin’s Grand Design to Start World War II” Viktor Suvorov
http://www.amazon.com/Chief-Culprit-Stalins-Design-Jacket/dp/1591148383
“A former Soviet army intelligence officer, the author explains that Stalin’s strategy leading up to World War II grew from Vladimir Lenin’s belief that if World War I did not ignite the worldwide Communist revolution, then a second world war would be needed to achieve it. Stalin saw Nazi Germany as the power that would fight and weaken capitalist countries so that Soviet armies could then sweep across Europe. Suvorov reveals how Stalin conspired with German leaders to bypass the Versailles Treaty, which forbade German rearmament, and secretly trained German engineers and officers and provided bases and factories for war. He also calls attention to the 1939 nonaggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany that allowed Hitler to proceed with his plans to invade Poland, fomenting war in Europe.
Suvorov debunks the theory that Stalin was duped by Hitler and that the Soviet Union was a victim of Nazi aggression. Instead, he makes the case that Stalin neither feared Hitler nor mistakenly trusted him. Suvorov maintains that after Germany occupied Poland, defeated France, and started to prepare for an invasion of Great Britain, Hitler’s intelligence services detected the Soviet Union’s preparations for a major war against Germany. This detection, he argues, led to Germany’s preemptive war plan and the launch of an invasion of the USSR. Stalin emerges from the pages of this book as a diabolical genius consumed by visions of a worldwide Communist revolution at any cost—a leader who wooed Hitler and Germany in his own effort to conquer the world. In contradicting traditional theories about Soviet planning, the book is certain to provoke debate among historians throughout the world.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.