Vladimir Putin attended
the military parade to mark the 72nd anniversary
of Victory in the 1941–1945 Great Patriotic War.
May 9, 2017
11:00
Red Square, Moscow
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Before the military
parade marking the 72nd anniversary of Victory in the 1941–45
Great Patriotic War.
Defence Minister General
of the Army Sergei Shoigu inspected the troops during
the military parade.
Commander-in-Chief
of the Russian Land Forces Colonel General Oleg Salyukov was
in command of the parade.
Over 10,000 personnel
and 114 units of military equipment took part
in the parade.
The music was
provided for by the combined military band of the Moscow
Garrison headed by Distinguished Artist of Russia Colonel Timofei
Mayakin.
Speech at military
parade marking the 72nd anniversary of Victory
in the 1941–45 Great Patriotic War
President of Russia
Vladimir Putin: Citizens of Russia, veterans, comrade soldiers
and sailors, sergeants, midshipmen and corporals, comrade officers,
generals and admirals,
I congratulate you
on Victory Day. Happy holiday, a holiday whose significance was
earned by the people themselves with their unparalleled feat
of liberating our Fatherland and their heroic and decisive
contribution to the defeat of Nazism.
The triumphant
victory over that terrible totalitarian force will forever remain
in the history of humankind as a supreme triumph
of life and reason over death and barbarity.
It is our duty
to remember that the victory was achieved at the cost
on irreparable sacrifices, that the war claimed millions
of lives. This monstrous tragedy was made possible primarily due
to connivance to the criminal ideology of racial
superiority and due to the lack of unity among
the world’s leading nations. This allowed the Nazis to arrogate
the right to decide the destiny of other peoples,
to unleash the cruellest, bloodiest war, to enslave nearly all
European nations and make them serve their murderous goals.
The Soviet Union
faced the most powerful assaults by the Nazis.
But there was not, there
is not and there will never be a power that could defeat our people.
