Why is Victory Day such a big deal in Russia?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vladimir Putin has been sworn in as Russia's president for a new six-year term, just days before Russia’s annual Victory Day military parade on 9 May.
But why does this annual event, marking victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, matter so much to Russia now?
We speak to Alexander Goncharov a former Russian military officer, who’s now head of the World War Two veterans organisation in Moscow.
And we discuss Victory Day’s symbolism with Russia editor Steve Rosenberg and Patricia Lewis from Chatham House.
Today’s episode is presented by Jamie Coomarasamy and Vitaly Shevchenko. The producers were Charlie Henry and Arsenii Sokolov. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | It's 804 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, |
| 0:10.0 | and it is a big week for Vladimir Putin. |
| 0:13.5 | He was inaugurated as Russia's president |
| 0:18.2 | at a ceremony in the Kremlin. |
| 0:19.8 | The Vladimir, Vladimir Rivitch. Vallemyre, Valletyrievich, Putin. |
| 0:25.0 | Fam. |
| 0:27.0 | Familea. |
| 0:28.0 | Familiar images of him making this long walk through the Grand Kremlin Palace to |
| 0:36.8 | St Andrews throne a religious element to the ceremony this time Vatale. |
| 0:41.3 | Yes it looked very grand, the way it usually happens in the Kremlin, very spectacular. |
| 0:50.0 | When he was being sworn in, he had his right hand on the Russian constitution. |
| 0:55.8 | Klineus, |
| 0:57.1 | pre-Astulene Polonimoi President of the Raskizki Federats. |
| 1:01.1 | And he swore to respect and defend human and citizens rights and freedoms and |
| 1:09.7 | observe the Russian constitution but if you open that read book on which his right |
| 1:15.6 | hand rested you would read things like censorship is banned in Russia freedom of thought and speech enshrined in Russia. |
| 1:26.0 | So this isn't the kind of Russia that Dymir Putin has built as the leader of Russia for the past quarter of a century. |
| 1:35.0 | That's today. |
| 1:36.0 | We've also got this week, of course, the big event in the Russian calendar, |
| 1:40.8 | the Victory Day celebrations which take place on Thursday. It's double never really easy. |
| 1:53.0 | It's about it. |
... |
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