The Russian capital's massive ceremonies commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany shine a spotlight on one of the Soviet Union's great successes, but they also illuminate many of the problems now plaguing post-Soviet Russia.
Amid their words of praise for the Red Army's bravery and sacrifice, officials have appeared defensive in scrabbling to preserve Russia's declining regional influence, deflect criticism of Russia's commitment to democracy and protest Western support for pro-democracy uprisings in ex-Soviet states.
Intense security measures for the Moscow ceremonies, which are crowded with foreign dignitaries, echoed the capital's fears of terror attacks by Chechen separatists, whom the Kremlin has been unable to wipe out in a decade of fighting.
PHOTO: AFP
With security so tight that Muscovites had little chance of seeing Monday's ceremonies firsthand, officials advised residents to get out of town, which some felt demonstrated how Russian authorities had little concern for the common man.
Soviet-era emblems and images of Josef Stalin abounded -- historically correct, but unsettling amid fears that President Vladimir Putin wants to lead the country back into heavy-handed authoritarian rule.
As Putin addressed WWII veterans at the Bolshoi Theater, he struck a defiant and defensive tone.
"Double standards with regard to terrorists are as unacceptable as attempts to rehabilitate Nazi accomplices," Putin said. The statement referred both to the Kremlin's frequent complaint that calls for Russia to negotiate with Chechen rebels are tantamount to capitulating to terrorism and to Russia's resentment of moves in some ex-Soviet Baltic countries and Ukraine to honor partisans who fought against the Red Army in WWII.
Leaders of two Baltic countries -- Estonia and Lithuania -- declined to come to Moscow for the celebrations, a demonstration of the widespread dismay over the nearly five decades of postwar Soviet occupation.
Also absent were leaders of two member nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the loose grouping of ex-Soviet republics other than the Baltics.
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev declined to come to the CIS summit, reportedly because of the presence of Armenian President Robert Kocharian: tensions are high between the countries over the unresolved status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Aliev came for Monday's ceremonies, but his staying away from the summit underlined the CIS' internal tensions.
The absence of Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili was a direct slap at Russia -- he stayed home to protest Russia's resistance to withdrawing two military bases that remain in the country as Soviet-era hangovers.
Saakashvili also is preparing for a visit by US President George W. Bush, who was scheduled to go there yesterday directly from Moscow. Bush's visit to Georgia is being seen as a strong endorsement of pro-democracy movements in the former Soviet Union. Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution scored a first, dramatic victory that drove out longtime leader Eduard Shevardnadze.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who came to power after his country's Orange Revolution forced an election in which he defeated a Kremlin-backed candidate, came to Moscow for the ceremonies, but used the occasion to downplay the CIS, saying there was "little use" for the organization that Russia sees as a key element in retaining regional influence.
Russia has sharply criticized the backing that pro-democracy groups in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan received from Western countries, and apparently is concerned that those countries' uprisings could be repeated in close Russian allies, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Russian Security Council chief Igor Ivanov last week criticized the uprisings as unconstitutional changes of power. That brought a cold rejection from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which said Sunday that "the international community has highly assessed the degree of conformity of last year's presidential elections with democratic standards."
The protests in post-Soviet countries raised the prospect of similar outpourings in Russia, where Putin is under increasing criticism for apparent authoritarian leanings. The WWII ceremonies' respect for Stalin could be seen as reinforcing that tendency, and Putin himself has given mixed signals, claiming Russia is reforming but speaking with respect and even nostalgia for the Soviet Union.
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. Hundreds of people,
RSS