In light of Monday’s Victory Day celebrations, opposition leader Garry Kasparov has penned a piece for the Other Russia describing the strategic, cynical employment of the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany to cement the political ends of the ruling elite over the last forty years.  According to Kasparov, Putin’s regime, under which the annual parade has become increasingly bellicose in tone, has brought home the very tokens of totalitarianism against which the Soviet veterans fought:

In Brezhnev’s time, Victory Day began to be actively used to strengthen the ideological basis of the Soviet system. Victory in the Great Patriotic War became not just a symbol to bring society together, but a central element of Soviet propaganda, justifying growing socio-economic problems and all the crimes of the Stalin era. Naturally, the real history of the Great War was sacrificed for a semi-official myth that worked to their advantage.