Victory Day commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War and normally features parades across the country.
Regional officials have been anxious about holding huge public events amid the Ukraine war — which is increasingly felt by Russians at home after a series of unexplained fires and explosions — even before the drones exploded by what is supposed to be one of the most protected buildings in the country.
At least 20 cities across Russia canceled Victory Day parades, with regional officials saying they didn’t want to “provoke the enemy with large amounts of equipment and military personnel” gathered in one place or out of concern that returning Russian soldiers may perceive the sound of fireworks “in a completely different way.”
The Immortal Regiment, an annual procession that draws millions of Russians carrying photographs of relatives who fought in World War II to march across most major cities, has been canceled. In Moscow, Putin traditionally led the march himself.
But the incident, which some analysts speculated was a false flag attack while others argued it might have been done by Ukrainian partisans or anti-Kremlin diversion groups working from inside the country, has been weaponized by the Russian authorities to galvanize public support for the war and justify the drastically scaled-back events.
Since the supposed attacks, more than half of Russia’s regions have banned the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, while Moscow residents complain about increased GPS jamming in the city center disrupting taxi services. The capital’s street police officers have been reportedly handed binoculars with the order to watch out for more drones in the sky.
Underscoring the nervousness plaguing the national holiday, Putin on Friday convened the Security Council, including Russia’s highest-ranking defense and security leaders, to discuss preparations for the Victory Day parade.
Russia also appears to have sent last-minute invitations to a few friendly foreign leaders asking them to attend the Red Square parade alongside Putin.
On Monday, the Kremlin announced that the presidents of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, as well as the Armenian prime minister, will be in attendance. In April, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was not inviting any foreign leaders and that Sadyr Japarov, the president of Kyrgyzstan, would be the only dignitary in Moscow at the time of the parade, as his previously announced official state visit coincided with the celebrations.
Five attending heads of state are unusually high for the Kremlin’s main Victory Day parade in recent years. Last year, Putin watched the event alone. Only seven leaders from former Soviet countries attended in 2020, when the ceremony was pushed from May 9 to June 22 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 70th Victory Day anniversary in 2015 saw the highest number of foreign guests, with dozens of representatives arriving from around the world.
Some commentators suggested the expanded guest list may be a tactic to make any diversion attempt too risky.
“This dramatically reduces the likelihood of a terrorist attack on the parade on Red Square by Ukraine,” Sergei Markov, pro-Kremlin political scientist and former lawmaker, wrote in his Telegram blog.
Under Putin, the May 9 parades and marches designed to commemorate the veterans have morphed into a showcase of Russian military might, with giant Iskander ballistic missile systems and modern Armata tanks rolling through the streets of Moscow.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said earlier this year that the Red Square parade would feature 125 military vehicles and 10,000 personnel.
In recent years, Putin has been increasingly focused on ensuring that Russians are presented with a simplified and glorified version of their country’s history, one that delves into its many conquests of the years, including the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. The victorious narrative and the legacy it carries into the future is pedaled by the state bureaucratic machine across all groups of Russian society, starting as early as kindergarten.
Since last year, schools and kindergartens introduced thematic classes meant to “explain” to young Russians the importance of what the Kremlin calls “the special military operation” in Ukraine.
This Victory Day, the presentation of military themes to the country’s youths has reached new highs, according to local media reports, with kindergartners and schoolchildren writing letters to soldiers, making crafts “to raise morale,” or teachers staging performances to “instill a sense of pride in the heroism of our people and a steady interest in the army” into their students.
