Western Media Spread Lies About Russia’s Victory Parade

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.

Western big media outlets keep spreading lies about Russia and its special military operation. Due to the fact that there was a relatively reduced number of troops and equipment during the military event in Moscow, some western journalists began to claim that Russia would be militarily weak and lacking weapons. In fact, this type of “analysis” sounds merely propagandistic and unsubstantiated if analyzed in depth, since it evidently does not correspond to reality.

First of all, it must be noted that there was no real deficit in the Parade’s traditional display of military hardware and show of force. The event was attended by more than 10,000 people and 125 units of military equipment, including modern vehicles such as missile systems YARS, S-400, Iskander, in addition to the BTR-82A tank. The traditional ceremonies honoring veterans and the Unknown Soldier were held without any change in comparison to the previous years.

However, despite being properly equipped and decorated, the Parade was relatively more modest compared to previous times. A smaller number of soldiers and weapons attended the event. Last year, for example, 11,000 people joined the Parade on Red Square, where more than 130 weapons of different types were on display. It was a small reduction, but it did really happen.

The problem is that western journalists started using these numbers to show an alleged Russian “weakness”. Big media outlets are spreading the narrative that Russia organized a reduced event because its military potential would be undermined by the conflict, with the country currently having low combat power, few soldiers, and few weapons.

Among other things, the newspapers emphasized the fact that in the mechanized column only one Soviet-era T-34 tank was displayed, as opposed to the extensive parade with old tanks that usually takes place on the Victory Day. For Western journalists, this would supposedly be evidence of the current status of the Russian military. For example, in an interview with Vice, a NATO official commented: “Putin probably thought he was being clever with the single T-34 tank but all it did was highlight how he’s running out of trained soldiers and modern equipment.”

Another fact much commented on by pro-Western analysts was the absence of paratroopers and other elite units from the Russian armed forces. For some outlets, this is evidence that Moscow would be extremely weakened, with few special units left after the first year of the special military operation.

“We know why the VDV (Russian paratroopers) wasn’t there today, they’re mostly dead outside Kyiv and Kherson (…) Instead [today] we mostly saw new conscripts and military cadets and the Russian’s didn’t announce the participation of their elite units with roots back to the Second World War as they normally would (…) This tracks with our intelligence analysis that determined Russian elite units are barely functioning after massive losses in the first year of the war (…) I’d wager Ukraine is deeply inside Putin’s head at this point”, the Vice’s source added. 

In fact, this rhetoric sounds absurd to any competent analyst. There is an immeasurable exaggeration about the real dimension of the reduction of the event. There were only a thousand fewer participants compared to last year. The weapons on display have also seen a virtually insignificant reduction. There has not been any kind of substantial change in the Parade, which is why it would be irrational to believe that this has anything to do with the current condition of Russian forces.

Furthermore, there is one fact that Western journalists conveniently ignore, which is the moral dimension of the event. Russia is currently at war – not against Ukraine, which is a country occupied by foreign agents since 2014, but with NATO and the collective West, which use the neo-Nazi regime to destabilize Russia and promote ethnic genocide in Donbass. In other words, while some soldiers parade through Red Square, others die on the frontlines against the contemporary version of the former Nazi enemy.

For Russians, who lost millions of citizens in World War II, this has particularly profound value. The special military operation on Russian borders means that the fight against Nazism has returned and that it must continue until the security of the Russian people is fully guaranteed. In times of war, military celebrations must be more modest, as it is not convenient to have large-scale celebrations while soldiers are fighting at the front.

The Russian government understands this reality and therefore organized a large event, but more modest than the previous ones, showing that celebrating past victories is important, but without ignoring the obvious fact that the fight continues.

So, by relating the dimension of the Victory Parade to the real combat capability of the Russian armed forces, the Western media is just once again spreading misinformation. In addition, the recent large-scale attacks using heavy artillery and elite units in several cities in the special operation zone make it clear that the reduced number of troops in the Parade means nothing in terms of real combat capacity.

You can follow Lucas on Twitter and Telegram.

Source: InfoBrics