Putin on Victory Day: Russia a security guarantor

Russia’s most important secular holiday, V-Day marks the defeat of Nazi Germany 68 years ago

9 May 2013, 11:42 am

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the background, takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier on the eve of the Victory Day in Moscow, Wednesday, May 8, 2013. (photo credit: AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Yekaterina Shtukina, Government Press Service)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has said at the annual military parade on Red Square that Russia will be a guarantor of world security.

Putin’s short speech Thursday came at the culmination of Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany 68 years ago. It is Russia’s most important secular holiday, honoring the huge military and civilian losses of World War II and showing off the country’s modern arsenal.

Putin told 11,000 servicemen standing in tight formation on the square and the war veterans in the spectator stands that “we remember what the tragedy of war means and will do everything so that nobody will ever dare to unleash it anew, threaten our children, our homes and our land.”

He says, “We will do everything to strengthen security on the planet.”