Schmid moved by inclusive victory ceremony

Samuel Schmid (right) met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Keystone

Russia has marked the 60th anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany with pomp and ceremony in Moscow.

Swiss President Samuel Schmid was among more than 50 heads of state and government leaders attending celebrations in Red Square.

The military parade saw 7,000 servicemen and 2,500 veterans from the Second World War – men and women in their 80s – marching in their uniforms past world leaders.

Some 20,000 police officers and members of the armed forces were deployed in the centre of Moscow for fear of attacks by Chechen rebels.

In his speech the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, described the victory over Nazi Germany as a “triumph of justice”.

Swiss President Samuel Schmid said the event was not only an occasion to remember the victims of the war.

“It is also a reminder for the post-war generation that we can’t take peace for granted and that we have to strive for it every day,” Schmid told a news conference in Moscow on Monday.

For the first time government leaders from Germany and Japan, representatives of Russia’s former enemies, took part in the ceremonies.

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the foot of the Kremlin walls and paid tribute to the sacrifice of Soviet citizens.

Former enemies

“I was moved by the fact that former enemies can attend the parade together,” said Schmid.

Many people in western Europe were not aware that the former Soviet Union suffered the highest death toll of all the nations during the Second World War, he added. An estimated 27 million people died during what is known in Russia as the “Great Patriotic War”.

“The image of the post-war generation is dominated by the heroic efforts of the Allied forces and the liberation of the Normandy region in France,” Schmid said.

This image is a remnant of the Cold War era and has to be revised, according to Schmid.

He added that there were aspects of history that still needed to be discussed even if a great deal had already been done.

However, there has not been a public debate in Russia over its wartime history and the role of the former Soviet leader, Josef Stalin.

Red Square was closed to the public and Muscovites were encouraged to leave the city and spend the day in the countryside.

Strained ties

Missing from the illustrious gathering of world leaders in Moscow were the heads of state of Estonia and Lithuania.

Latvia and Poland pressed for Russia to revise the official view of its Soviet past. But Putin has refused their demand for a public atonement.

The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, boycotted the ceremonies in a dispute over the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia.

The Russian government did not hide its irritation over President Bush’s visit to the Baltic region and a trip to Georgia.

swissinfo

Key facts

World leaders paid tribute to the estimated 27 million Soviet citizens who died during the Second World War.
Switzerland was represented at the ceremonies by President Samuel Schmid.
Schmid also met the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, President Bush and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Moscow.