Moscow, May 9
In paying their gratitude to the millions who made the supreme sacrifice in crushing Nazism in the great patriotic war, Russia and the assemblage of world leaders caught in World War II gave a standing ovation to the marching and mechanised columns in a parade of military precision at the majestic Red Square culminating in a fly past. The surviving veterans proudly displaying a multitude of medals on their chests were overwhelmed with thousands of their compatriots and others reminding them that they had not been forgotten as it was because of them that they were free.

US President George Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Helmut Schroeder,

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among others lustily cheered the march past and especially when those columns appeared where the soldiers wore the same uniform as evidenced during WW II. After the ceremonial military parade, the leaders offered their respects and laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

In welcoming more than 56 Heads of State and Government, host and Russian president Vladimir Putin, who had planned the victory day festivities by paying great attention to the minutest of details, emphasised that the ghastly war “appeals to our reason, committing us to great responsibility and making us realise with more acuteness just how close the world came at that time to plunging into an irreversible abyss. On this day, we see more clearly just what monstrous consequences violence, racial intolerance, genocide and outrage committed against people could have had”.

Observing that WW II had drawn nearly 61 countries in its ambit, involving almost 80 per cent of the earth’s population in its inferno, he said the events that determined the outcome of this war unfolded on the territory of the then Soviet Union. “The Nazis counted on rapid enslavement of our people and destruction of our country but their plans failed. Through the liberation of Europe and the battle for Berlin, the Red Army brought the war to its victorious conclusion.”

He said all the peoples and all republics of the Soviet Union suffered irreplaceable losses. Grief entered every home, every family. “May 9 is therefore a sacred date for all countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.”

Dwelling on the threat of terrorism, Mr Putin said, “It is our duty to defend a world order based on security and justice and on a new culture of relations among nations that will not allow a repeat of any war, neither cold not hot”.

He stressed the historic reconciliation between Russia and Germany was a shining example of finding a new road to international dialogue and cooperation. “History teaches us that states and peoples must do everything but they cannot let their eyes close to the emergence of new lethal doctrines, to anything that can become fertile soil for new threats.”