A day without victory. As Putin leaves the Russians without the holiday on May 9

Initially, in the border regions of the Russian Federation - Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk regions, as well as in the occupied Crimea, the Russian authorities abolished the victory parades on May 9. The reason is the "current situation" and "unwillingness to provoke the enemy", that is, Ukraine. Subsequently, the wave of refusals swept away in the distant regions.

The heads of local administrations far from the borders with Ukraine stated that because of "moral and ethical aspects" they cannot conduct mass celebrations. Others said they wish to express "solidarity with the regions of the country, where holiday measures have already been abolished for security reasons.

" Thus, the parades will not take place, for example, not only in Ryazan or Kaluga, but also in Tyumen, Nizhnovartovsk, Surguta, Khanty-Mansiysk, which is located two thousand kilometers from Ukraine. And in the Krasnodar region, although they did not formally announce the abolition of parades, but military equipment can only be seen in Novorossiysk, although the marches were arranged in Krasnodar and Sochi.

But the so -called safety measures are far from the main reason for the cancellation of parades. The fact is that Moscow is increasingly lacking military equipment for demonstration - it is all on the front.

"Regardless of the fact that the real cause is safety problems or lack of equipment, the decision to cancel this year's parade to Victory Day is a painful blow to Vladimir Putin, which hints at the gloomy reality, which stands for optimistic propaganda images of Moscow about his unsuccessful invasion of Ukraine ", - notes the publication of the American Atlantic Council Center. In addition, there is not enough for parades and people.

According to experts, in the cities of the Russian Federation in which the parades will take place, only soldiers of conscript service - all contractors in the war in Ukraine. But even more, it is expected that in some regions will be attracted by instructors and other personnel dressed in military uniforms to create the visibility of a normal situation. Not only the parades but also the traditional "Immortal Regiment" with portraits of World War II veterans were abolished.

Because the authorities think that the Russians will bring portraits of the victims in the war in Ukraine - and there will be a large number. In Ukraine, about 200,000 Russian soldiers were killed in the year. Instead, in Moscow, a parade on Victory Day should take place under all conditions-it is a chance to show the people that it is still strong and controls the "special military operation" in Ukraine. The rehearsal took place the day before - May 7.

Foreign journalists who work in the capital of the Russian Federation say that soldiers were marching a square, which was decorated with posters and installations with the date of the planned parade. Political scientist Taras Chornovil reminds that access to the Red Square is closed since mid -April, so they will only be selected there. They will be selected and created a picture for TV screens. Of these, you can see President Vladimir Putin.

However, it is still not known whether Putin will appear on the parade of his own person, whether he will perform from the screen. The British edition of The Guardian on the eve of May 9 writes that Moscow has now covered "unprecedented nervousness. " And above all, because of the incident with unknown drones over the Kremlin, who put Moscow on the brink of nervous breakdown.

"Journalists say that Russian authorities forbade the use of drones, began to stumble GPS-signals, and police officers handed out binoculars to detect drones. After all, Russian equipment on a parade on Red Square is a legitimate goal, which can be struck by the Ukrainian military, and the means to strike such strikes in the Ukrainian military will be found. "The center of Moscow is covered so that the bird does not fly there.

Therefore, the drones who flew there as Ukrainian, I think, were their own. For Putin, the Red Square is an absolutely safe place. But, I think, it will definitely not be there. Like no doubles. And there are several reasons for this,-says Chornovil. The veterans who were several meters away were kept in quarantine for several weeks. Putin is not afraid of murder and arrivals of drones, but infections. He has cancer. It is held artificially during life.

True Putin has not appeared on people for a long time - he does not go to Lukashenko, in the occupied Crimea and Mariupol, and sits only at long tables and appears at video conferences, and not everyone. Even if there is no threat to life yet, but there is a paranoid fear. "Other question - why there will be no double? Chornovil notes: Drone attack, who would not organize such, is a terrible humiliation, unique. And from such circumstances, Vladimir Putin had - Show that I was not scared.

"There are two options. The first is to cancel completely. To declare: "We save lives" to the participants of the Second World War and we worry about the country - we throw all the forces on "our". This option would come if you support it in advance by a super propaganda campaign on television. The second is to organize a parade only in Moscow, gathering the best. To focus on Putin. He would say, "We are attacked, but we stand, your leader is not afraid.

" Both options, according to the expert, would be winning for the Russian Federation. But it seems that the Kremlin can choose a loser-to cut a parade in a minimum, to hold, but not to bring Putin to it. Thus, Putin's "greatest holiday" can turn into his defeat. Like, the Victory Day in the Second World War, which the Russians call the Great Patriotic War, gradually became the central element of the vision of Russian identity by dictator Vladimir Putin for 23 years of his stay in power.

"Carefully organized parades traditionally give the Kremlin the opportunity to sway modern Russian military power," The Guardian wrote. And Andriy Kolesnikov, a senior researcher of the Carnegie Foundation, clarifies: "For Putin, this is definitely the most important event of the year. The President of the Russian Federation draws all his legitimacy from this parade, positioning himself as a direct successor to the army who defeated Nazi Germany.

" However, the Kremlin is still making efforts to make the parade in Moscow decisive-Putin should hear and see all of Russia. Atlantic Council notes that the annual celebration of Victory Day in Russia is closely linked to Putin - it is important for him to conduct once again "historical parallels" between two wars, showing Ukraine as a heir to Nazi Germany. During last year's speech, Putin said that Russia was fighting in Ukraine so that there was no place to the Nazis in the world.

"Like 1945, the victory will be behind us," Putin said in 2022. "Vladimir Putin puts the experience of the Second World War as an attempt to restore Russian national pride after imaginary humiliations of the 1990s. Putin turned the traditional Russian reverence for Soviet military efforts into a quasi-religious cult of victory-with their own dogmas, holidays," Analysts explain. Like, this cult of victory has long set a tone in Russian politics and public life.

"Putin's internal and external opponents regularly attaches as" Nazis ", and all sorts of current issues are considered through the polarization prism of World War II. This trend is not manifested as vividly as in the official Russian approach to Ukraine. Nazi, "and the current invasion of Ukraine was portrayed as a modern continuation of the fight against Adolf Hitler," - added at Atlantic Council.

Experts now predict that the Russian authorities, despite the abolition of parades, will try to create a perfectly festive picture for their citizens, 65% of which consider Victory Day to be the most important holiday (according to fresh data of the All -Russian Center of 58%). "Well, what will the Russians do? Drink Vodka somewhere in the kitchen and say," Something is wrong.

"Do you know what the Russians are most afraid of? Not that their people die - they have a lot of people, they do not notice losses, the price of human life They are low. They are afraid that the war will come to the territory of Russia - "to us. " You say that Stalin said that the war should be waged in a foreign territory, and when it came to the Soviet Union, the country was paralyzed for the first time, "Taras Chornovil adds.