Victory Day masks simmering tensions and corruption in Putin’s Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin led a separate victory parade on Thursday, demonstrating his country’s unity and determination to continue the war against Ukraine. However, the war celebrations also overshadowed the simmering tensions in the Kremlin and in Russian society.

At first glance, this year’s parade on Red Square was the usual choreographed display of military might: over 9,000 military personnel took part, including a thousand currently serving in what Russia still refers to as a “special military operation” – the official euphemism for the full scale invasion of Ukraine. The mechanized column was led by a World War II-era T-34 tank, a symbol of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

However, since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the massive military parade has declined somewhat. Last year, the usual flyover of military aircraft over Red Square was canceled and this year’s parade featured only one tank, the museum piece T-34. Priorities on the front line seem to have taken precedence over ceremony.

And as in previous years, Putin portrayed the war in Ukraine as a continuation of what Russians call the Great Patriotic War, making the false claim that Russia is fighting “neo-Nazism” in Ukraine.

But this year’s Victory Day also takes place against the backdrop of a bribery scandal rocking the Russian Defense Ministry.

Last month, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was implicated in a corruption investigation and arrested on suspicion of accepting a “particularly large” bribe. The scandal was exacerbated by the arrest of two Russian businessmen suspected of involvement in bribery.

And Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Ivanov’s boss before he was dismissed from his ministerial post, played his usual role at this year’s Victory Day parade: he lined up the troops and reported to Putin before the president’s speech.

Kremlinologists can draw few conclusions from Shoigu’s appearance on May 9. But the arrest of Shoigu’s protégé has led to speculation about infighting at the highest levels of power and cast an uncomfortable spotlight on what observers see as a culture of rampant corruption within the Russian military, CNN reports.

As head of construction for the Russian Defense Ministry, Ivanov was responsible for overseeing projects such as the reconstruction of the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was destroyed by Russian forces in 2022.

The reconstruction of apartment blocks in Mariupol was part of the Russian government’s propaganda: Putin made a famous visit to the occupied city last spring as part of a campaign.

But a visual investigation by the Financial Times pointed to poor construction quality in Mariupol, underpinning speculation that reconstruction funds were being siphoned off by Russian companies that had been awarded construction contracts by the government.

Ivanov is subject to US and EU sanctions for his role in the war against Ukraine. But his ex-partner’s lavish lifestyle has been thoroughly investigated by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), the investigative group of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison north of the Arctic Circle earlier this year.

Russia’s political opposition – which has been largely sidelined, marginalized or exiled under Putin – is still reeling from Navalny’s death.

But Navalny’s investigative foundation continues to focus relentlessly on corruption in Putin’s Russia.

In recent weeks, ACF investigator Maria Pevchikh has managed to gain the upper hand with the release of a documentary series entitled “Traitors”, which traces Putin’s origins against the backdrop of political and economic freedom in 1990s Russia , the argument goes, is the original sin of today’s Russia.

But that is not the message Putin is conveying on Victory Day.

Despite heavy losses of men and equipment on the battlefield in Ukraine, defense spending has boosted the Russian economy. Putin’s technocrats have skillfully managed the economy amid international sanctions.

But Russia’s economy remains highly inefficient and corrupt. Prestigious projects – such as the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi – have long been the subject of allegations of corruption and favoritism, particularly in the awarding of contracts. And the living standards of ordinary Russians are seen as secondary in Putin’s war economy.

Seen from this perspective, this year’s Victory Day in Moscow was more of a feel-good exercise in which today’s Russia was portrayed as the opposite of the 1990s: proud, militarily strong and inevitably marching forward. And Putin navigated this whole affair after a quarter of a century in power with the same rhetoric of patriotism, “sacrifice and love for the fatherland.”

/TheGeopost/