Putin To Preside Over Scaled-Back Events To Mark 75th Anniversary Of Victory Day

Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 9 will lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial near the Kremlin to mark 75 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Putin also will address the nation from the Tomb of the Unknown, according to his spokesman. There also will be a television broadcast showing the 1945 parade along with other films — programming arranged to substitute for a grandiose military parade through Red Square that had to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The anniversary comes as Russia is reeling from the pandemic’s economic fallout while it copes with six straight days of more than 10,000 new cases of infection.

Marking the Victory Day anniversary, Putin sent telegrams on May 8 to U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a sign that Russia is looking to rekindle the cooperation of the war-time allies.

Putin and Trump spoke by phone on May 7, and the Kremlin said on May 8 that Putin and Johnson also spoke by phone, congratulating each other on the 75th anniversary of the allied victory in World War II and expressing a readiness for dialogue and cooperation on bilateral issues.

“Both sides expressed readiness to establish dialogue and cooperation on issues on the agenda of Russian-British relations, as well as in solving pressing international problems,” the Kremlin said.

In his message to Trump, Putin said Russia and the United States stood at the forefront of confronting global challenges. And “could do a lot to ensure international security and stability.”

The messages were among many that Putin dispatched to the Soviet Union’s World War II allies on the anniversary of the end of the conflict in Europe.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II delivered a televised address to the nation on May 8 at the same time that her father, King George VI, gave a radio address marking Victory in Europe (VE) Day in 1945.

She recalled the millions of people who died “so we could live as free people in a world of free nations.”

She said the greatest tribute to their sacrifice “is that countries who were once sworn enemies are now friends, working side by side for the peace, health and prosperity of us all,” noting that the message of VE Day was, “”Never give up, never despair.”

Britain has the highest number of deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus among European countries. Its more than 31,000 deaths are among the more than 146,000 deaths from COVID-19 in all of Europe, roughly the same number of allied forces that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.

In Germany, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel joined other government officials in a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to victims of war and violence in Berlin.

“The corona pandemic is forcing us to commemorate alone — apart from those who are important to us and to whom we are grateful,” Steinmeier said. He urged Germans to “think, feel, and act as Europeans” amid the coronavirus crisis.

Elsewhere across Europe, VE Day events had to be postponed, canceled or reduced to online commemorations.

Across the Atlantic, President Donald Trump joined seven World War II veterans, ages 96 to 100, at a wreath-laying ceremony in Washington to commemorate the anniversary.

Trump said the anniversary served as a reminder “that no challenge is greater than the resolve of the American spirit.”

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS