Russian President Vladimir Putin said that WW2 started due to disunity of the world’s leading countries and called for the world to unite at a Victory Day parade in Moscow.
The Nazis were able to start World War II because of the disunity of the world’s leading countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during a Victory Day parade at Moscow’s Red Square, adding that the lessons of the past should not be ignored.
“This horrific tragedy could not be prevented, first and foremost, because of the connivance of the criminal ideology of racial superiority, because of the disunity of the world’s leading countries. This allowed the Nazis to appropriate themselves the right to decide the fate of other peoples, to unleash the most brutal, bloody war, to enslave almost all European countries, putting them at the service of their deadly targets,” the Russian leader said, speaking during the military parade in Moscow marking the 72nd anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945.
According to Putin, the greatness of Victory Day is “defined by the people, by their unprecedented heroic act of saving the Fatherland, and a decisive contribution to the defeat of Nazism.”
“The triumphant victory over this terrible totalitarian force will remain in human history forever as the highest point of the triumph of life and mind over death and barbarity,” he stressed.
“We must remember that the victory was won at the cost of huge, irreplaceable fatalities, that the war took millions of lives,” Putin concluded.
In order to effectively combat terrorism, extremism, and neo-Nazism today, the entire world community should unite, the Russian president noted.
“But to effectively combat terrorism, extremism, neo-Nazism, and other threats, consolidation of the entire international community is necessary,” Putin said.
“We are open for such cooperation, and Russia will always be on the side of forces for peace, with those who choose the path of equal partnership, who deny wars as contrary to the very essence of life and human nature.”
The Victory Day parade has concluded on Moscow’s Red Square, where some 10,000 people took part and 114 military vehicles were on display. After attending the festive event, Putin laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beside the Kremlin walls to honor the fallen soldiers of World War II. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, and other top Russian officials attended the ceremony.
A meeting between a North Korean government delegation and US political experts reportedly took place in Norway on Monday (8 May) with another round of talks scheduled for Tuesday.
The meeting comes days after US President Donald Trump announced his willingness to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to put an end to the rising tensions in the Korean peninsula.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted sources as saying that Choe Son-hui, director-general of the North America bureau chief of the North Korean foreign ministry, was leading the delegation from Pyongyang, while Suzanne DiMaggio, director and senior fellow at Washington DC-based think tank New America, was heading the American delegation.
"It's my understanding that dialogue between North Korean government officials and US civilian experts opened today [Monday] in a suburb of Oslo and will continue through tomorrow," a source told the news agency.
The meeting is the second Track II meeting between the two parties in a year, after the first session took place in Geneva, Switzerland, about six months ago.
Political observers believe that the timing of the meeting is vital, given the war-like situation forming in the peninsula. They are hopeful that the meeting could pave the way for more formal dialogues between the two adversaries.
Meanwhile, North Korea continued its tirade over alleged US provocations even as the meeting was underway in Oslo on Monday. It yet again accused the US of "igniting" a war against North Korea.
"Recently the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine, arrived at waters off South Korea under the pretext of annual visit where a nuclear-powered carrier strike group has been deployed. This is the intent to openly threaten the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," state-run Rodong Sinmun stated in a commentary, carried by Korean Central News Agency.
The commentary claimed that the North was compelled to build and bolster its nuclear
attack capability for self-defence.
"The only way of protecting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the region to cope with the US nuclear threat and blackmail is to increase the nuclear force, both in quality and quantity, in order to mercilessly wipe out the aggressors and provokers.
Satellite images captured on Monday show Chinese military installments being placed on a crucial islet in the contested waterway.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has previously called China’s island building in the South China Sea “illegal.”
The People’s Liberation Army of China has a naval base on Hainan Island, and since March, several missile launchers have been placed at the base, according to a Defense News report.
“The direction in which the launchers are facing leads us to believe these are shore-to-ship missiles,” imagery analyst Amit Gur told the news outlet, adding that the missile systems are now “clearly visible.” What is less clear is whether the missile systems were just brought out from storage at the Yulin Naval Base or delivered as brand new systems. “We just don’t know if they are new systems,” or “the ones that were stored during the renovation,” Gur noted.
The missile systems can serve as an avenue for Beijing and the PLA to project power far away, the analyst said.
On Monday, US Pacific Fleet Commander Scott Swift claimed that the US still intends to challenge Beijing in the South China Sea, even though the Pentagon has denied multiple requests made by the US Navy to conduct freedom-of-navigation operations there.
The Venezuelan opposition on Monday planned to march in Caracas against President Nicolas Maduro's call to rewrite the Constitution days after women held protests.
The protest by women wearing white on Saturday denounced the violence against demonstrators carried out by Venezuelan security forces accused of repressing dissent to support Maduro's regime. On Sunday, hundreds of musicians and artists also took to the streets of Caracas to reject the violence -- many playing instruments and singing as they marched.
On Monday, anti-government protesters in Caracas expected to descend onto the headquarters of the Ministry of Education from numerous starting points. Opposition leaders said the protest is meant to show its rejection of the ministry's invitation to the Democratic Unity Roundtable opposition coalition to take part in the process to rewrite the Constitution.
The opposition has likened Maduro's call for a chance to the Constitution to a coup d'etat in which he seeks to stay in power against the wishes of the majority of Venezuelans. The opposition also said Maduro's call for a new Constitution is an attempt to sidestep elections scheduled for 2018.
"No more! Venezuelans can not accept that they intend to make a Constitution for the interests of the corrupt narco-dictator and not the country!" Henrique Capriles Radonski, governor of Venezuela's Miranda state and a key opposition leader, said in a statement on Monday.
Russia rolled out air defence systems built to operate in sub-zero Arctic conditions on Tuesday as it showcased its military might at a parade on Moscow's Red Square.
The parade, an annual event commemorating the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, took place under grey skies as President Vladimir Putin looked on from a platform alongside Soviet war veterans.
The Kremlin has been flexing its military muscle in the hydrocarbon-rich Arctic region, as it vies for dominance with rivals Canada, the United States and Norway.
An aerial show by Russia's air force, including warplanes that have flown missions to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army, was cancelled because of low visibility.
Smaller parades were held in cities across Russia, in Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula, which Russia annexed three years ago, as well as at Russia's Hmeimim air base in Syria.
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