Russia marked World War Two victory on today with an outpouring of patriotic pride for its huge wartime role and Red Square military parades attended by world leaders that ignored tensions in ties with its neighbours.
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| US President George W. Bush shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (left), Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre) and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev (right) look on. Photograph: Reuters |
World leaders who included US President George W Bush and China's Hu Jintao, then plunged into informal diplomatic talks among themselves touching on key issues such as terrorism, North Korea and the Middle East.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr Bush as military and war veterans marched or drove across the cobbled square, once the scene of Cold War displays of Soviet military power, to the strains of stirring martial music.
Mr Putin, for whom the ceremony was a rare high point after a difficult period marked by faltering ties with Washington and ex-Soviet allies, declared that the world owed "great human thanks" to the nearly 27 million Soviet citizens who died.
"Grief came to every home, every family," he said, in a ringing speech.
Russian security forces threw a tight security cordon around the city centre and sealed off the Kremlin area and Red Square to celebrating Muscovites for fear of attacks by Chechen rebels.
World leaders later laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the foot of the red-brick walls of the Kremlin, including the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi representing the vanquished nations.
Mr Bush and others stood on a tribune in front of the marble mausoleum that still holds the mummified body of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin. It was from atop this tomb that dictator Josef Stalin had greeted victorious Soviet troops 60 years ago.
At one point, proceedings looked threatened by heavy rain that fell as Mr Putin greeted his guests inside the Kremlin.
But, using a well-practised Russian procedure for such occasions, air force planes took to the air and dispersed the clouds in time for the parade to pass off under clear skies.
Mr Putin shook hands warmly with Bush whom he entertained last night at his country retreat west of Moscow.
Grey-haired war veterans, their breasts heavy with war medals and decorations and many perhaps observing their last Victory Day, were driven past Mr Putin and Mr Bush in old World War Two open trucks, waving bunches of red carnations.