Putin hails Russia's war heroes

Medal-bedecked Russian Second World War veterans gathered in Moscow today for a parade and parties celebrating the allied victory over Nazi Germany 58 years ago, a moment that still resonates powerfully in a country deeply affected by the war.

The centrepiece of the annual Victory Day celebrations was a parade of thousands of soldiers across Red Square outside the Kremlin.

Ageing veterans, their numbers dwindling as the 20th century recedes into the past, did not march in the parade this year, but watched from the sides of the square.

President Vladimir Putin, who observed the parade from a stand erected in front of Lenin’s tomb, congratulated veterans, soldiers and citizens on what he called “this great and sacred holiday.”

Saying the Soviet military fought against a foe that had no doubt of victory, “but was broken, broken here on our land.”

While major Soviet-era holidays lost their ideological meaning with the Soviet collapse 12 years ago, the Second World War – which Russians also call the Great Patriotic War – is recalled as glorious achievement across much of the former Soviet Union.