President Vladimir V. Putin de Russia on Friday celebrated the victory of his country 80 years ago against Nazi Germany, presiding over a great military parade in Moscow along with China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
The event meant the objective of Mr. Putin to project himself as a leader of an emerging alliance of anti-western states and not aligned with Mr. XI, who was sitting beside him in a position with a view to the Red Square.
They also attended more than 20 international dignitaries, including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or Brazil, Prime Minister Robert Fico or Slovakia, and President Aleksandar Vucic or Serbia. Some saw the large number of foreign leaders as a sign of Russia’s global influence despite Western efforts to isolate Mr. Putin after the large -scale invasion of Moscow or Ukraine in 2022.
But after three years of war, the exhibition of military power did not reflect the Russian record on the battlefield. The country’s army has not achieved a decisive victory, and has only achieved incremental profits in Ukraine in recent months. The economy also has the deceleration of the legs due to the fall in oil prices and interest rates that have kept high as the country tries to tame inflation.
Around the last three years, Mr. Putin has tried to use the Soviet triumph in Nazi Germany to legitimize his invasion of Ukraine. But a moment that historically has taken the largest secular event in the country and served to unite the many factions of the country has become another point of division.
