(Reuters) – Security concerns have prompted Russian authorities this year to cancel traditional nationwide Victory Day processions where people carry portraits of relatives who fought against Nazi Germany in World War Two, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Since 2012, the “Immortal Regiment” processions have become a major feature of national celebrations on May 9, a public holiday when Russia honours the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the struggle to defeat Adolf Hitler’s invasion.
But TASS news agency quoted lawmaker Yelena Tsunayeva as saying the marches would not take place this year since a number of regions, including Russian-annexed Crimea, had pulled out “because of the threat”.
She did not specify the threat, but Moscow has accused Ukraine of conducting numerous attacks on Russian soil – mainly in southern border regions but occasionally much deeper inside the country, including drone strikes on Russian airbases.
Ukraine, defending itself against a Russian invasion now in its 14th month, typically declines to comment on alleged operations inside Russia.
It has denied Russian accusations that it was behind bomb attacks that killed two leading propagandists for the war, the first near Moscow last August and the second in a St Petersburg cafe this month.
It is also not clear why Ukraine would wish to attack a civilian procession, especially when to do so would feed an unfounded Russian narrative that the government in Kyiv is a neo-Nazi regime perpetuating Hitler’s aggression.
The scrapping of the popular processions is the latest example of how a war that the Kremlin still describes as a “special military operation” is impinging on the everyday lives of ordinary Russians.
Carrying a portrait of his own father, President Vladimir Putin joined many tens of thousands of citizens who packed Moscow’s broad main avenue, Tverskaya Street, to walk over Red Square on May 9 last year in honour of the “Immortal Regiment”.
Tsunayeva said that this year, people were invited instead to put photographs of their soldier relatives on their clothes, their cars, or online.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
