Muted Red Square parade reveals Kremlin strain behind wartime propaganda
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin speaks during a military parade marking Victory Day in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia, on May 9, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool)
Russia’s subdued Victory Day parade on Red Square showed a
Kremlin under growing strain, increasingly isolated and uncertain about its
future, retired British Army Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon wrote in The
Telegraph on May 9.
Symbolism has always mattered to Russia, and this year’s
Victory Day parade spoke for itself, he wrote.
The absence of tanks was not just an omission — it was an
admission, the military expert said.
A regime that once flaunted its military power before the
world could not assemble armored vehicles, missiles or major combat equipment
for its most important national showcase. For a country whose modern identity
is built around military might, the day looked less like a Victory Day
celebration than a display of strategic exhaustion.
Even after Russia launched its full-scale war against
Ukraine, the Kremlin could still send columns of tanks, missile launchers and
aircraft across Red Square with theatrical confidence. This year, de
Bretton-Gordon wrote, the event was stripped of that spectacle.
A few aging aircraft flying in loose formation could not
hide the fact that Russia is burning through its military resources on the
battlefield at extraordinary speed. De Bretton-Gordon also noted that World War
II-era tanks appeared at regional parades. There is also speculation, he wrote,
that some of those museum relics are being returned to service because
thousands of Russia’s modern armored vehicles have already been destroyed on
the front line in Ukraine. If true, he said, that would be devastating evidence
of the Kremlin’s depleted military power.
The shortage of personnel was just as revealing, the
military expert wrote. Russian troops at the parade appeared to have been
supplemented by soldiers from North Korea — an unusual sight for a country that
once touted self-sufficiency as central to its military prestige. Moscow now
relies not only on North Korean ammunition but also on manpower, underscoring
how dependent Russia has become on authoritarian partners.
The diplomatic picture looked no better, de Bretton-Gordon
wrote. Only a small group of authoritarian leaders stood alongside Russian
dictator Vladimir Putin. Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s absence was especially
notable, he said. In the past, Xi’s presence had signaled strategic solidarity.
Xi’s absence suggests a more cautious Beijing, one
increasingly aware that association with Russia’s failing campaign carries
growing geopolitical costs, the author wrote.
Putin, as expected, tried to draw on the mythology of the
“Great Patriotic War,” comparing Soviet triumphs such as the Battle of Kursk
with the current fighting in the same region. But the contrast was impossible
to miss, de Bretton-Gordon wrote.
In 1943, the Soviet Union deployed thousands of tanks in one
of history’s decisive armored battles. Today, Russia can barely display even a
symbolic armored presence on Red Square, the military expert said.
Instead of projecting strength, the Moscow parade exposed
weakness.
The absence of even a single modern tank on Red Square may
become one of the defining images of this war. The fact that the Kremlin could
not spare even symbolic armor for its most important national ceremony says a
great deal about the pressure on its army.
For Ukraine and its allies, that reality offers some hope,
de Bretton-Gordon wrote. A war cannot be won with a parade, but a parade can
reveal the truth hidden behind propaganda. And the truth visible on Red Square
on May 9 is that the Kremlin is increasingly isolated and uncertain about its
future.
The parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9 lasted
only 45 minutes, making it the shortest in modern Russian history.
It was held without military equipment and amid internet
shutdowns.
Only a few foreign guests attended, including
self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Malaysia’s King
Sultan Ibrahim and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith.
Dictator Vladimir Putin, speaking on Red Square, claimed
“victories” in the war in Ukraine despite successful Ukrainian strikes deep
inside Russia and a slowdown in Russian advances on the front line.
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