Persuasive Firepower : Preferred Historical Version

"The attempt to appease the aggressor on the eve of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be a mistake that cost our people dearly."

"We will not make such a mistake a second time, we have no right."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin greeting veterans   Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin Pool/Sputnik/EPA-EFE

Such Orwellian language and logic! The Soviet Union made a pact with Nazi Germany. They had, after all, much in common. The Communist USSR and the Fascist Third Reich both embraced totalitarianism, a dictatorship of nationalist nobility, guiding their people to the promised land of conquest to result in power, placing their nations first among secondary and tertiary nations of the world who would grovel at their feet. 

Each had plans to extend their territorial advantages, to absorb the geographical realms and natural resources of neighbouring nations and they planned to succeed through an Axis Aryan-ideal clique of like-minded nations. Even Axis member Japan was given honourary Aryan-nation status. Russia and Germany would fight the Allied nations led by Great Britain who sought to deny them the right to invade and occupy their neighbours.

Until Germany miscalculated and defaulted on their agreement by invading Russia. For a replay of the Napoleonic invasion where extreme weather conditions and a bitterly determined defense launched by the Soviet Union beat back, at great cost to human life and military materiel, the German advance. And spelled an early death knell to the Third Reich's grandiose plan of installing itself as a unipolar world power.

 

Here the commanders of BMD-4 amphibious infantry fighting vehicles salute    Yuri Kochetkov / EPA-EFE

 

Vladimir Putin, like most dictators with a self-serving agenda, simply 'forgot' Russia's role as a member of the Axis, preferring to portray the Soviet Union as a courageous opponent of fascism and Nazi Germany in particular. He would not linger on the sacrifice exacted in Russian lives where millions perished defending the Motherland from a former partner in a diabolical plan to overturn the world order. His legend has it that Soviet Russia dedicated itself to destroying a monster to save the world.

Today's celebrations marking the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany saw Russian President Vladimir Putin proudly presiding over an atmosphere of joyous triumph, complete with dramatic displays of Russia's immense firepower parading massive mechanized war machines, highly technical rocketry and intercontinental ballistic missiles to showcase Russia's might while its military goosestepped with pride.

 

There were no invited international guests of honour this year in reflection of the isolation imposed on Russia by the West for its invasion of Ukraine. A fly-past over St.Basil's Cathedral to include supersonic fighters, Tu-160 strategic bombers and the II-80 "Doomsday" command plane tasked to carry Russia's elite military should a nuclear war event occur. Where the II-80 is designed to transform into a roaming command centre for the Russian president, offered singular drama.

 

Putin's speech did not contain any major announcements about the conflict in Ukraine   Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP

 

Vladimir Putin describes his 'special military operation in Ukraine as similar to the Soviet Union facing up to Hitler's Nazis invading Russia in 1941. A cataclysmic event on the world stage that took 27 million Soviets to their graves, a sacrifice no other country had faced. The Victory Day parade is meant to show the true path of history of the Second World War which in the West relegates the glorious Soviet element to a sideshow.

In Ukraine, the invasion by Russian troops has led to the deaths of thousands on both sides displacing close to ten million Ukrainians, while leaving Russia with tough Western sanctions, raising fears of a potential wider confrontation between the two major antagonists; Russia and the United States representing the world's biggest nuclear powers.

Ever-increasing supplies of military weapons have been provided to Ukraine by the U.S. and its allies. Leading to some within the Russian military calling on their president to unleash greater firepower on Ukraine. Western nations have been advised by Moscow that their arms supplies are legitimate targets. As for the speculation of a special announcement on Ukraine being issued on May 9th, Dmitry Peskov characterizes such speculation as "nonsense". 

Parades are taking place in 28 Russian cities including the capital Moscow, involving 65,000 people, 2,400 items of military hardware and more than 400 aircraft   Analtoly Maltsev / EPA-EFE