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00:00 People of Russia, veterans of Russia, comrades, soldiers, quartermasters, officers of the
00:15 army, the navy, the air force, admirals, generals, commanders-in-chief of the special military
00:26 operations, I salute you all on today to mark the day of our great victory.
00:33 Today is a day where we remember those who came before us, those who fell on the battlefield
00:41 and in doing so became immortals, who joined the regiment of immortals who gave up their
00:46 lives for our country in the fight against Nazism.
00:52 And that fight is one which is rearing its head again today.
00:59 Once again we see war that is afoot but we have been pushing back, fighting against international
01:07 terrorism to protect the people in the Donbass region and to protect our country.
01:14 There are only friendships that we can have between the East and West, around this world.
01:25 What we want for the future is a future of peace, a future of stability, not a future
01:37 of blood.
01:42 But the elite in the West, they keep talking of their exceptionalism, of how they are different
01:51 and they are the ones creating a sense of disruption between our peoples.
01:59 They are the ones destroying family values, traditional values that make everyone on this
02:06 planet human.
02:10 They are forcing their will on other nations, forcing their rules on others.
02:22 But it would appear that they have forgotten what Nazism was all about.
02:30 It seems that they have forgotten the scourge that it wreaked.
02:37 They have forgotten all that had to be done to free Europe from Nazism.
02:44 Nazism, a time when monuments were destroyed, and they would appear to have forgotten exactly
02:57 what Nazism did back in the day when they were wreaking havoc throughout Europe.
03:06 And that very act of forgetting is a crime in its own right.
03:13 Because in forgetting that time, they are forgetting the fight that was necessary to
03:18 be able to rid Europe of that scourge, to rid the world of that scourge.
03:31 Nazism was an effort to destroy Russia, to destroy the global order, to stifle the new
03:42 centres of development that we see around the world.
03:47 Their impunity is a great tragedy.
03:53 And that is the very reason why today the Ukrainian people are being held hostage.
04:02 They're being held hostage following a coup.
04:08 And they are just puppets in a game that is being played by the West.
04:17 But we, in Russia, we pay homage to the fallen soldiers.
04:23 We pay homage to the veterans of America, of the United Kingdom.
04:30 We pay homage to the heroes, the war heroes from China.
04:37 We pay homage to the past.
04:43 We see international cooperation as a great strength.
04:49 And that it holds true both today as it did in the past.
04:53 But the multi-polar world that we are seeing is one in which we can have fair opportunity
05:06 and development for all.
05:12 What I see in the world is one where we can pay homage to our ancestors, our shared ancestors
05:22 who fought together, who fought towards a common victory.
05:28 And we pay homage to that shared victory today.
05:34 We take a knee to all those who put their life on the line to assure victory.
05:45 We pay homage to the mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, children.
05:54 And in their memory I call for a minute of silence.
06:17 [Rhythmic clapping]
06:42 [Rhythmic clapping]
06:57 Citizens of Russia, the battles that will ever forevermore shape our history are sacred
07:20 and we understand what it means to be worthy, to be worthy heirs to what those people who
07:33 came before us have given us, those people on the front line, those people who are facing
07:41 the heavy fire.
07:45 We know what it means to be worthy of their legacy.
07:49 We know what it means to fight for one's country.
07:55 And you, current soldiers, you are worthy.
08:00 You are fighting for your friends, for your loved ones, for your family.
08:07 And I know that you feel the great love that we have for you, that they have for you.
08:15 Everyone, everyone is ready to support you and to give you any help that you need, any
08:25 prayers that you need.
08:29 To the Russian people, today we are commemorating the fallen heroes of our nation.
08:38 And here we are today on the Red Square.
08:42 And we can remember people such as Dmitry Dolzhkoi, Bajawski, Kutuzov, the people who
08:57 fell between 1941 and 1945.
09:03 We pay homage to them.
09:04 We also pay homage to the fighters who were part of the special military operations, those
09:10 people who took arms as part of our partial mobilization, fighters, representatives from
09:17 the Ministry of the Interior who are here today to pay homage to you.
09:23 I pay homage to you, to all you who defend Russia on the battlefield, all of you who
09:33 are serving your nation as part of the great patriotic war.
09:40 Because thanks to you, we can prove that there is nothing stronger than national unity.
09:50 And for Russia, for our armed, brave armed forces, victory for all.
09:56 [MUSIC]
10:06 [MUSIC]
10:16 All right, that's Russia's national anthem playing now.
10:34 We just heard the Russian president speak for that Victory Day parade.
10:39 A lot of expected rhetoric from Vladimir Putin.
10:41 He said that Nazism is again rearing its ugly head today.
10:45 That Russia is fighting to protect its own population and
10:48 those in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
10:50 He again accused the West of attempting to destroy traditional family values,
10:55 of destroying the global order.
10:56 Even adding that it's holding Ukraine hostage after a coup.
11:00 He described Ukrainians as puppets in a game being played by the West.
11:05 Well, our international affairs editor, Philip Terrell, is on set with me now.
11:08 So we'll debrief the Russian president's remarks.
11:11 Philip, not many surprises from his comments there.
11:14 >> Well, first of all, there was no surprise that he was equating
11:18 the situation at the end of the Second World War and Russia's victory over
11:22 Nazi Germany with what he still calls a special military operation in Ukraine.
11:28 Where he says the West is basically behaving like Nazi Germany.
11:34 The West has decided to destroy family values,
11:38 all of those values that are close to people's hearts.
11:41 The values that make people human, forcing the rules on others.
11:47 He says that the West has forgotten what Nazism was all about and
11:52 all that had been done to free Europe from Nazism.
11:57 And the act of forgetting this is a crime.
12:00 So placing fairly and squarely the blame for
12:03 everything that's happening on the doorstep of the West.
12:07 Saying that it's basically Russia that is under attack and
12:10 Russia is only defending itself against an onslaught by the West.
12:14 It's quite interesting that he singled out three countries,
12:18 the United States, the United Kingdom, and China in that speech.
12:22 Saying that he paid homage to the fallen from the United States,
12:27 the United Kingdom, and China.
12:28 The US and the UK are the biggest providers of weapons to Ukraine.
12:33 And China, he is trying to bring on board to supply weapons to Moscow to help it in
12:38 its fight in the war in Ukraine.
12:40 And I think there's a definite attempt by Vladimir Putin to try to divide
12:44 public opinion in those countries.
12:46 And also to make them understand that he is respectful of the dead,
12:51 but he wants to point the finger at the US and the UK.
12:56 And also try to bring China on board.
12:59 And a couple of other points in that speech.
13:03 He said that the Ukrainian people were being held hostage.
13:07 They were puppets in a game played by the West.
13:11 No reference there to the fact that the Ukrainians
13:17 did not welcome in Russian forces on the 24th of February last year.
13:20 When there were claims by Vladimir Putin and many in the Kremlin that the day that
13:25 the special military operation started there,
13:28 that the Russian forces will be welcomed in with open arms by the Ukrainian people.
13:32 That hasn't happened.
13:32 It still hasn't happened.
13:34 No mention of Bakhmut in that speech.
13:36 No mention of any victories in the war in Ukraine.
13:40 So that also, I think, was a big disappointment for Vladimir Putin,
13:44 because that was something that he would have liked to have announced today during
13:47 that speech in Red Square.
13:50 But definitely an anti-Western speech,
13:56 lots of anti-Western rhetoric there by the Russian president.
13:59 Certainly sounds like more of the same from Vladimir Putin in a relatively short
14:04 speech, as you said there, Philip, just under 10 minutes.