Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a coded message on missile defense to U.S. leader George Bush and hailed new challenges for the army on Wednesday as the country marked the end of World War Two.
Russia each year celebrates Victory Day with pomp and a military march in Red Square, but it was the first time the parade was reviewed by a civilian defense minister, Sergei Ivanov. The appointment was one of the steps in reforming the military, which Putin hopes will lead to a more modern force.
Putin called in a speech at the march, broadcast live on television, for unity among Russians as they remembered the war, in which Russia and former Soviet states lost more than 20 million people, far more than any other allied nation.
"Our nation had such unity and such a will that this strength was enough to raise the world to fight fascism," he told almost 5,000 troops in the square. "We have no right to give up this spirit today."
Putin also had a message for Bush, who wants to build a national missile defense system for the United States. Russia sees such a shield as a threat to global strategic stability aimed against Moscow's own nuclear arsenal.
"The experience of post-war history shows that one cannot build a safe world only for oneself, moreover one which harms the interests of others," he said.
Bush has said the United States needs the missile defense to defend itself from possible future attack by states it regards as threats, such as North Korea and Libya.
Russia has strongly opposed the idea of the United States going alone and building itself a missile shield, but has said it is ready to talk about the threats Washington fears.
Putin also told the troops of new challenges ahead for them.
"The traditions of victory gave a spiritual core to the Russian army, an army which is developing and being structured anew, which is taking on modern features," Putin said, hinting at the shake-up he wants to carry out in the military.
The aims of the reform are to make the army more modern and reduce the importance of the nuclear missile force while preserving a strong nuclear defense. Ivanov has also said the widely-detested general conscription will also one day be ended.
Putin wants to end shortcomings which led to defeat in the first Chechen war of 1994-96 and again highlighted by the current drawn-out campaign in the separatist region.
Putin's speech was the climax of the official events on Victory Day, marked as a holiday in most former Soviet states, apart from the Baltic nations.
The rest of the day for Russians was to be marked by wall-to-wall war films on television plus documentaries and interviews with veterans of the war against Nazi Germany – MOSCOW (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
