We'll see what the new Prime Minister brings to the table... We saw what he brought to Red Square on Friday.
Putin, Medvedev, etal are proving the theory that communist-inspired dictators do best when nationalism is running high. Friday's Victory Day parade was the first since the fall of the Soviet Union. It follows months of silly, but aggressive, mothball bomber runs toward Japan and England, and in our opinion, has little to do with celebrating the Nazi defeat in WWII. Plenty of media was in attendance, however Anna Politkovskaya, Ivan Safronov, and 12 of their other dead colleagues were not.
The great sacrifices we have made for the freedom and independence of our country, the incalculable privation and suffering our people have endured during the war, our intense labours in the rear and at the front, laid at the altar of our motherland, have not been in vain; they have been crowned by complete victory over the enemy. The ago-long struggle of the Slavonic peoples for their existence and independence has ended in victory over the German aggressors and German tyranny.
Henceforth, the great banner of the freedom of the peoples and peace between the peoples will fly over Europe.
- Stalin, May 7, 1945
We saw how that whole "banner of the freedom" thing went.
Here is an 8-minute video of Friday's Victory Day parade.
