Soldiers marched and medal-bedecked veterans waved from military trucks rolling down a main Moscow street yesterday, as Russia began a pomp-filled, high-security celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
About half a dozen tanks, including at least one World War II-era T-34, stood on a street near Red Square, awaiting today's military parade, which will be watched by the foreign guests. The pavement was marked by tank tracks.
Dozens of foreign leaders have been invited to the ceremonies, prompting some of the strictest security measures Moscow has seen.
PHOTO: AP
City authorities have long been urging Muscovites to leave town over the weekend, as some parts of the city center as well as roads leading to the city's airports were blocked off and accessible only to people with special passes.
Yesterday, gray-haired veterans rode on open military trucks down Moscow's main thoroughfare to Byelorussky railway station, where a train was pulled by a period locomotive in a recreation of the arrival trains bearing victorious Soviet troops back from the war.
As in 1945, the front of the locomotive bore a big portrait of a smiling Josef Stalin, the Soviet leader whose legacy is hanging over the anniversary celebrations. Many Russians feel he was the driving force behind the victory, while others revile him as a dictator who killed millions of his own citizens and say the Soviet people won the war despite his mistakes.
The 60 veterans aboard the train were greeted on the platform by women in traditional Russian costumes and war-era clothes, as well as by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. They were led into the square outside the station, where some waltzed as they awaited a concert in their honor.
"Today is a great day. Our victory meant that we could live and study," said Alexander Roshin, 79, a veteran who was aboard the train.
Another veteran, 80-year-old Vera Minayeva, expressed anger at economic hardship in today's Russia.
On the way to the station, soldiers stomped alongside the veterans in trucks as Russians lining the street, holding flags and balloons, chanted "Thank you" and shouted congratulations.
also see story:
Bush pays tribute to fallen soldiers
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS