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Putin visits Crimea to mark holiday celebrating Soviet victory in World War II Putin delivers triumphal speech in visit to Crimea
(about 4 hours later)
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin declared Friday that 2014 would enter “the history of our country” as he visited Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on the annexed peninsula of Crimea, asserting Moscow’s right to retake a territory that has deep roots in Russian nationalism but since 1991 had been part of an independent Ukraine. MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin sought to place himself in the ranks of Russia’s greatest leaders Friday, reaching deep into his nation’s history to assert that the annexation of the peninsula of Crimea was a milestone for the centuries.
Using a holiday that marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Putin flew to the Crimean port city of Sevastopol after presiding over a triumphal military parade through Red Square. In his first visit to Crimea since he seized the peninsula in March, Putin paid a triumphant call on a territory that had been Russian since the time of Catherine the Great but since 1991 had been part of an independent Ukraine. The annexation set off an international crisis that has pushed Ukraine to the brink of war and has led to the greatest tensions between Russia and the West since the worst crises of the Cold War.
The visit to Sevastopol was Putin’s first to Crimea since Russia annexed the peninsula in March, setting off an international crisis that has threatened to throw Ukraine into civil war. The peninsula and its main port, founded by Catherine the Great in 1783, is now firmly back under Russian control. Putin reeled off a list of highlights of Russian nationhood that began with the naming of the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol in 1784.
“The example of Sevastopol shows the world that in places where people are ready to fight for their freedom, the enemy will never conquer,” Putin said in a triumphant portside address, marking a day that is the anniversary both of the liberation of Sevastopol from Nazi occupation and the total victory over Germany the following year. “I am sure that 2014 will become part of the city’s chronicle, and the chronicle of our entire country, as the year in which the people here decided firmly to be together with Russia,” Putin said. In March, Crimeans voted in a referendum in which 97 percent were said to have chosen to bind themselves to Russia.
“We are sure that 2014 will make it into the history of Sevastopol and the history of our country, because this is the year that the people of Crimea decided firmly to be with Russia, thus proving their loyalty to historical memory and the memory of our predecessors,” he said. “Thus they proved their loyalty to historical truth and to the memory of our predecessors,” he said at the port, as 10 gray warships floated behind him. “We have lots of work in front of us, but we will overcome all the difficulties, because we are together, and that means we have become stronger.”
“We have lots of work in front of us, but we will overcome all the difficulties, because we are together, and that means we have become stronger,” he said.
[Read a transcript of Putin’s remarks][Read a transcript of Putin’s remarks]
Before his brief remarks, Putin reviewed sailors in the Bay of Sevastopol, using a small white naval ship to salute a line of Russian warships in turn. After he finished visiting the 10 warships, dozens of fighter jets streaked across the sky, highlighting a military might that Putin has threatened to further unleash on Ukraine if he judges Russian interests there to be threatened. On an emotional holiday that marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Putin flew to Sevastopol after presiding over a triumphal military parade through Moscow’s Red Square. There and in cities across Russia’s vast territory, scores of tanks, rocket launchers and intercontinental ballistic missiles delivered a show of military prowess that Putin has threatened to further unleash on Ukraine if he judges Russian interests to be threatened.
The visit drew immediate condemnation from the head of NATO. Other world leaders had counseled against Putin’s trip in advance. Putin has long aspired to be one of Russia’s epoch-defining leaders, saying that the breakup of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, in part because “tens of millions” of ethnic Russians found themselves outside the borders of Russia. The Russian president has made it his mission to rebuild a country powerful enough to demand the same respect once accorded to the Soviet Union, analysts have said.
“We consider the Russian annexation of Crimea to be illegal, illegitimate and we don’t recognize it,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Tallinn, Estonia, the Associated Press reported. “We still consider Crimea as Ukrainian territory, and from my knowledge the Ukrainian authorities haven’t invited Putin to visit Crimea, so from that point of view his visit to Crimea is inappropriate.” In the Ukrainian crisis, which unfolded at the same time as the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Putin may have seen his chance. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich fled from office the day before the Olympics’ closing ceremonies. Russian forces in Crimea made their moves just a few days later. The annexation of Crimea has driven Putin’s approval ratings to multi-year highs of over 80 percent, after years in which they had been sinking, and there are few mainstream voices to stand in his way.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier this week that a parade in Crimea would be “a shame.” If Putin is reelected to another four-year presidential term in 2016, he will be poised to surpass Leonid Brezhnev as the second-longest-serving leader of post-imperial Russia, after Stalin. He has been Russia’s paramount head since Dec. 31, 1999.
Putin made the trip after speaking earlier in the day in Moscow, where missiles and tanks rumbled down Red Square in a triumphant parade. In an address at the square, Putin vowed that he would always defend his nation’s interests. During his more than 14 years in power, Putin has transformed Victory Day into a celebration of Russian might that he said Friday was his nation’s main holiday. The day was once devoted primarily to private remembrances of the wartime victims that are in almost every Russian family, and many mourners here still pay visits to cemeteries to pile flowers on the graves of relatives.
Swearing that the memories of Russia’s hard-earned World War II battles would never be forgotten, Putin in both cities addressed aging veterans and his country on Victory Day, one of the most emotionally charged holidays of the Russian calendar. The commemoration came as thousands of Russian troops massed on the border with Ukraine, poised to invade — and to create new wartime veterans — if Putin gives the command. But in 2008, Putin revived military parades through Red Square – they had ended after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 – and every year since, the celebrations have grown more elaborate. Red banners, golden stars and the hammer-and-sickle emblem of the Soviet Union have festooned Moscow’s streets in recent days.
In his morning address in Moscow, when armored personnel carriers from the Black Sea Fleet that were flying the flag of Crimea rolled past the tribune, the crowd went wild with applause. The peninsula was part of Russia until 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine, then a Soviet republic, and many Russians have wanted it back ever since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union made Ukraine an independent state. So too have the black-and-orange St. George’s Ribbons that are a tsarist-era military decoration but were brought back in recent years to commemorate veterans. On Friday, they were fastened to nearly every lapel in the country, including Putin’s. The ribbons, which have become deeply politicized as a symbol of Russian nationalism, have also been adopted by pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine.
“We will never allow the betrayal and oblivion of the heroes, all those who selflessly safeguarded peace on our planet,” Putin said, speaking on a tribune in front of the tomb of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. “We will take care of Russia and its glorious history, and we will always put service to the motherland at the very top. That is how it has always been in our country.” Before his remarks Friday in Sevastopol, which lasted less than four minutes, Putin reviewed sailors of the Black Sea Fleet, using a small white naval vessel to salute a line of Russian warships in turn. After he finished going down the line, dozens of fighter jets streaked across the sky.
On a warm spring day, 11,000 soldiers and more than 150 military vehicles, including Iskander-M intercontinental ballistic missiles, rocket launchers and dozens of tanks, paraded across Red Square, past St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin. Under a crystal blue sky — the government seeded clouds in advance so that they disappeared — 69 planes and helicopters streaked above a crowd of veterans and their guests, marking 69 years since the 1945 victory over Nazism. Many of the aging veterans were wearing chestfuls of medals, which clinked in the wind. Only a handful of states have recognized Crimea’s annexation, and Putin’s visit to soil that most countries in the world still consider legally Ukrainian drew immediate condemnation from the Obama administration, NATO and others.
During Putin’s more than 14 years in power in Russia, he has turned Victory Day, once a somber day devoted primarily to private remembrances of wartime victims, into the military parade that it is today. Red banners, stars and the hammer-and-sickle emblem of the Soviet Union have festooned Moscow’s streets in recent days. “Such a visit will only serve to fuel tensions,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Laura Lucas Magnusson.
The holiday came amid escalating violence in Ukraine that threatens to worsen within days. Victory Day commemorations on Friday providing new flashpoints for confrontation ahead of a planned independence referendum Sunday organized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. If that poll leads to further deaths, Ukrainian leaders fear that Russia might invade. Putin has promised to defend Russian interests in Ukraine if they came under attack. In Tallin, Estonia, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters that “from my knowledge, the Ukrainian authorities haven’t invited Putin to visit Crimea, so from that point of view his visit to Crimea is inappropriate,” the Associated Press reported.
Putin on Thursday presided over massive military exercises that appeared designed to spotlight his country’s enduring might, with missiles streaking across Russia and rockets raining down on target ranges. And the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called the trip a “gross violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty” in a statement.
That came a day after he appeared to seek conciliation when he called for the referendum to be postponed. But the loosely organized bands of separatists in eastern Ukraine quickly decided that they would proceed anyway, in part, some said, because momentum was behind them. Last week, clashes erupted in the previously peaceful port city of Odessa, leaving more than 40 people dead, most of them pro-Russian protesters who were trapped in a blaze when a building was set on fire. Putin was not the only Russian official asserting an expansive vision of Russian borders on Friday, with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visiting a Victory Day parade in Transniestra, the breakaway region of Moldova. Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine have said they want to unite a band of territory from Transniestria to Odessa to eastern Ukraine in a new Kremlin-allied state of Novorossiya.
Russian television stations — all of which are now pro-Kremlin after the more skeptical TV Rain was pushed off cable packages in January — have devoted nonstop programming to allegations of abuse in Ukraine, resurrecting World War II-era language to describe some Ukrainian nationalists as fascists and Nazis. Putin’s approval ratings have soared to multi-year heights, above 80 percent. The holiday came amid escalating violence in Ukraine that threatens to worsen within days. There was street-by-street fighting in the industrial port city of Mariupol on Friday, and a planned Sunday independence referendum organized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine could worsen the situation further, provoking a Russian invasion.
At the parade, a dwindling band of veterans — almost all of whom are 87 or older in a nation where life expectancy for men even now hovers below 65 — wore medals and their faded green and blue uniforms. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu saluted in a Soviet-era Zil limousine that slowly drove him past scores of troops. Then Russia’s white, blue and red flag and the red hammer-and-sickle flag of the Soviet Union were paraded into the square, accompanied by a wartime-era march. Earlier this week, Putin appeared to seek conciliation when he called for the referendum to be postponed. But the softer tone lasted only a day, after which Putin presided over massive military exercises that appeared designed to spotlight his country’s resurgent hard power, with missiles streaking across Russia and rockets raining down on target ranges.
Putin spoke, wearing a red tie and the black-and-orange St. George’s Ribbon, a czarist-era military order of valor that has been repurposed in recent years as a way to honor veterans. On Friday, the ribbon was on almost every lapel in Moscow. And the loosely organized bands of separatists in eastern Ukraine quickly decided that they would proceed with the referendum anyway — in part, some said, because momentum was behind them.
“Today, we are honoring the memory of those killed in the war, those who are not with us today,” Putin said. “Every family honors its devotion to the motherland. A continuous link between generations is our national wealth. The strength and dignity of Russia is based on it.”
Natasha Abbakumova contributed to this report.Natasha Abbakumova contributed to this report.