What Russia’s Victory Day celebrations say about the war in Ukraine

THE RULEKGBNATO of Vladimir Putin, a former operative turned dictator, rests on lies, violence and militarism. And on May 9th, the day marking the Soviet Union’s victory in the second world war, all three of those traits were paraded on Moscow’s Red Square. Mr Putin has long hijacked the victory over Nazi Germany and built it into something resembling a religious cult to serve his regime. Now he is invoking it as he fights his war against Ukraine and anyone inside Russia who stands in his way. As Ben Wallace, the British defence secretary, said in a speech of his own on the same day, Mr Putin and his generals “are now mirroring the fascism and tyranny of 77 years ago…resplendent in their manicured parade uniforms, weighted down by the gold braid and glistening medals.”Just as the Nazis justified their unprovoked attacks on Poland in 1939 and the Soviet Union in 1941 by claiming to be acting in pre-emptive self-defence, so did Mr Putin claim in his speech at the parade that Russia had launched a pre-emptive strike against Ukraine and . “An absolutely unacceptable threat to us was steadily being created right on our borders…[the invasion] was forced, timely and the only correct decision.”