Russia finally cancels Victory Day, for now

LAAS LEIVAT

The decision wasn’t easy. Only after pleas from veteran’s groups urging the Kremlin to postpone the event over concerns about the health and safety of the participants did the government act.

The veterans’ apprehensions were real. As late as April 1, some 15,000 soldiers were known to be still rehearsing for the Victory Day parade. Now we have learned that they’re being quarantined for two weeks. All transport vehicles used are to be disinfected. The illness struck students and the director of the St. Petersburg Nahhimov Naval Academy, who participated at the rehearsals, which was probably one of the motivations for the Kremlin’s decision.

Speculations about Putin’s reluctance to postpone the celebrations point to linked reasons: Putin’s fear of losing popularity thereby weakening his increasingly authoritarian rule, and keeping Russians focused and obsessed with the heroic grandeur of the Soviet past through Victory Day – making ‘Russia great again’ for the future.

One need not be a inveterate cynic to tie the delay in the 75th anniversary parade cancellation with Putin’s flagging poll numbers. The internationally recognized Levada Centre has shown a decrease in his approval rating from 69 percent in February to 63 percent in March. The celebrations of the Soviet victory would supposedly have given a major boost to Putin’s popularity. It was blatant political expediency that drove this hesitancy to delay a crucial public relations event.

Putin’s initial unwillingness to put the health of Russians ahead of political considerations is easily explained. He has made the May 9th celebrations the second most popular day of the calendar, next to New Year’s Eve. He’s aware of the Levada Centre surveys which showed a sharp increase for the day’s popularity, rising from 29 percent agreement to 43 in 2017. In a 2018 survey, fully 87 percent said they felt a strong feeling of pride about Victory Day. This rise in popularity coincides with Putin’s drive to restore the greatness of the Soviet era. (Just one example: the melody of the Soviet national anthem is re-used in the current song.) The unveiling of new massive monuments, cathedrals dedicated to the Russian military, jets and tanks were to be the centre pieces in many cities country-wide.

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