President of Russia Vladimir Putin, on May 9, 2024, once again used the occasion of the country’s Victory Day celebration as a bully pulpit to denounce the “Western elite” (i.e., the countries of the U.S.-led NATO alliance) for encouraging the former Soviet bloc countries to seek independence, in the wake of which monuments, memorials, and other structures, erected in those countries as a braggadocios reminder of the Soviet army’s not only vanquishing the Nazi invaders but also occupying the countries of Eastern Europe, according to the former Soviet Union’s propaganda, to prevent invasion by the warmongering alliance of NATO, were torn down or otherwise removed.

[Comment: The Russian text begins in progress as Putin addresses the military arms of service and corresponding ranks represented at the parade. Putin’s speech, followed by Russia’s anthem and cannon salute can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP8jccG-4RA ].

Putin’s speech continues below with the translation of and commentary on the Russian text as rendered by LOC:

Fighters, commanders, front-line soldiers, heroes of the special military operation: I congratulate you on Victory Day, on our most important, genuinely national, holy holiday…[Putin began in the very first sentence of his Victory Day speech, commemorating the defeat of Nazism in Europe, to inculcate not only those in attendance at the parade on Red Square but the Russian public at large as well as the world community with the spiritual nature both of Russia’s war against Ukraine and that waged by the former Soviet Union against Germany during the Second World War.]

Today we see as attempts are made to distort the truth concerning the Second World War. It [The truth] is inconvenient for those who are used to building their essentially colonial policy on hypocrisy and lies. They tear down memorials to the true fighters against Nazism. They put on pedestals the traitors and accomplices of Hitler. They cross out the memory of the heroism and nobleness of the soldier-liberators, of that great sacrifice, which they made in the name of life. [Putin intentionally builds on the theme of Nazism, since he has based Russia’s fight to regain control of Ukraine as a fight against the latter’s ‘neo-Nazi’ culture.]

Revanchism, mocking history, striving to justify today’s successors of the Nazis – this is part of the general policy of the Western elite for kindling ever-new regional conflicts of international and inter-religious hostility, for the containment of sovereign independent centers of world development. We reject the pretensions of any state or alliance to exclusivity. We know, what the improbability of such ambitions leads to. Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash, but, at the same time, we will allow no one to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always in military readiness. [In the genre of Soviet Marxist propaganda, on which he cut his teeth politically and vocationally as a KGB agent, it could only be expected that Putin would engage in similar language, accusing the West of the very acts he himself is guilty of perpetrating, such as revanchism, by reconstituting the former Soviet Union; mocking history by not accepting peoples’ desire for freedom; and, foisting onto others the moniker of ‘Nazis,’ when in fact he is the one who has instigated a war of aggression against a sovereign state.]

In the West, they wanted to forget the lessons of the Second World War. But we remember that the fate of humanity was decided in the colossal battles in the environs of Moscow and Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Rzhev, Stalingrad [Volgograd], Kursk, and Kharkov [Kharkiv]; in the environs of Minsk, Smolensk, and Kiev [Kyiv]. In difficult, bloody fighting from Murmansk to the Caucasus and Crimea. During the first three long, hard years of the Soviet Union’s Great Fatherland War, all republics of the former Soviet Union practically fought one on one with the Nazis [I would suggest he is subtly issuing an appeal to the former republics that constituted the Soviet Union to re-unite in a new, overarching union with a single capital and government], as practically all of Europe was working for the military might of the Wehrmacht. In this vein, I would stress, Russia never downplayed the importance of a second front and the aid of the allies. We honor the courage of all fighters of the anti-Hitler coalition, participants of the resistance, those who fought [secretly] underground, partisans, the bravery of the people of China, who fought for their independence against the aggression of militaristic Japan. And we will always remember, we will never, never forget our common fight and the inspiring traditions of the alliance. [Putin may also be attempting to generate a camaraderie, similar to that shared (on a limited basis) during WWII with the western allies, in an effort to staunch the West’s support for Ukraine.]

Dear friends, Russia is now living through a complicated, transitional period. The fate of the homeland depends on each of us. Today, on Victory Day, we realize this even more acutely and distinctly and we are without fail equal to the generation of victors – courageous, noble, wise – to its ability to guard friendship and perseveringly to suffer adversity, to always be sure of ourselves and our country, to sincerely and selflessly love the motherland. We are celebrating Victory Day in the conditions of conducting the special military operation [SMO, in Ukraine]. All of its participants – those on the front line, on the line of contact – are our heroes. We bow before your steadfastness and self-sacrifice //stutters// self-denial. All Russia is with you, they believe in you, and our veterans are both concerned for you and [join the] spiritual co-communion in your fates and exploits. Indestructibility connects the generations of heroes of the fatherland. Today we bow our heads before the bright memory of all, whose lives the Great Fatherland War took away – before the memory of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends. We bow our heads before the veterans of the Great Fatherland War who have departed from us; before the memory of peaceful residents who have perished from barbaric shelling and terrorist acts of the neo-Nazis; before our fighting comrades, who have fallen in the struggle against neo-Nazism in the righteous fight for Russia. [As he draws his speech to an end, resolute in being victorious in Ukraine,Putin expresses a false humility, and at the same time, disingenuously compares the present generation that finds itself in an offensive war, into which he pushed it, with that of the 2nd World War, holding the former to the same standard of honor in combat as the latter.]

A moment of silence is observed.

Thank you. Our dear veterans, comrades, friends, 9 May is a very emotional, poignant day. In every family, they are honoring their heroes. They are gazing at photographs, at dear, loved faces. They are bringing to mind relatives, their stories about how they fought, how they worked. Victory Day unites all generations. We are going forward leaning on our centuries-old traditions and confident that together we will ensure the free, secure future of Russia, of our single people. Glory to [our] valiant armed forces! For Russia! For victory! Oorah! [In conclusion, Putin shamelessly stoops to schmaltz and patriotic boilerplate.]