Russia Goes Back in Time for Military Parade

Remember those bombastic military spectacles the Soviets used to hold on Red Square several times a year to strike fear into every bourgeois heart? Well, they’re back, and they’re bigger and better than ever. As the below article (in our exclusive translation) shows, the Kremlin is pulling out all the stops for the May 9 parade to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the Day of Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War of the Years 1941-1945. The parade will feature the premiere of trendy new Russian army uniforms – approved by Vladimir Putin himself. To make sure the whole event goes off without a hitch, an entire full-scale replica of Red Square has been erected on a military base outside town – by decision of Vladimir Putin himself. And in order for all the big military hardware to pass unhindered, all overhead electric wires will be dismantled in the center of Moscow, disrupting public transport and leaving downtown residents and businesses without electricity for several days. This sounds more like North Korea than a civilized European country! Translated from RBC:

Electric power lines to be taken down in center of Moscow for 9 May parade For the passing of the military hardware that will participate in the parade on 9 May on Red square, streetcar lines, trolleybus communications and lines of electric power transmission will be taken down in the center of Moscow. As head of the Main administration for combat training of the Ministry of defence of Russia lieutenant-general Vladimir Shamanov reports, the corresponding understanding has already been attained with the government of Moscow.

The parade of 9 May of the year 2008 on Red square will consist of three parts: dismounted, mechanized, and military-air. “By decision of the president of the RF in Moscow oblast on the territory of the Tamanskaya division has been built a terrain for training for the parade of 9 May. It simulates the configuration of the main square of the country (until this troops trained on the Khodynsky field in Moscow)”, reported he. In the words of the general, at first the training for the parade will take place on the territory of the Tamanskaya division, after this the military hardware will be moved by railroad transport into Moscow.He particularly noted that this time the ceremonial detachments will for the first time be dressed in a new uniform, recently approved by the president of the RF. “From the year 2009 this uniform will begin to come in to the Armed forces”, added the general.As they reported in the Ministry of Defence, during the time of the parade of troops on 9 May of the year 2008, all airplanes and helicopters of all types standing in the inventory of the Military-air forces (VVS) will fly by above Red square. The VVS RF already carried out a rehearsal of such a fly-by in August of the year 2007 in near-Muscovian Monino.It will be possible to see more than 30 types of airplanes and helicopters above Red square, including the bomber Tu-160, the military-transport airplane An-124, modern modifications of “Su” and “MiG” airplanes. The celebrated aerobatic groups “Russian knights” and “Swifts” will undertake participation in the parade. At the present time, crews of the VVS, attracted to participation in the parade, are working out questions of teamwork in places of permanent deployment.In the “on-the-ground” part of the parade on 9 May of the year 2008, from the VVS will pass combined battalions of the Military-air academy named after Yu.A. Gagarin and the Military-air engineering academy named after N.Ye. Zhukovsky.30 January of the year 2008