With more than 9,000 soldier, sailors, and airmen and 100 vehicles marching in the parade, this was the largest such parade held in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.[5] Unlike previous Victory Day parades, there were no units parading in Great Patriotic War uniforms, though the Victory Banner was paraded at the beginning of the ceremony. Training for the parade took two months in Alabino, Moscow Oblast. On 8 May, a temporary platform with a white-blue-red banner was erected on Red Square, covering the Lenin Mausoleum .[6]
On 22 April, the equipment was delivered to a training ground near Moscow. Before the parade, the tracked vehicles were delivered by rail. Due to the fact that in 1995 the Resurrection Gates were restored, military equipment entered the square on from one side of the State Historical Museum, and not from two as in previous parades.[8]
Aircraft at the Parade
Aircraft of the Russian Air Force performing a fly-over at the Victory Day parade in May 2008.
The parade has been criticized for returning to the Cold War-like display of weapons. Upon receiving personal criticism, Prime MinisterVladimir Putin stated the following: "This is not saber-rattling. We do not threaten anyone and are not going to do this, we do not impose anything on anyone".[10] The military also allocated more than 1.3 billion rubles to the parade, many of which included the stones and asphalt concrete pavement for the mobile column, which came under criticism by opposition sources as well.[11][12][13]
