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President Vladimir Putin:
Comrade soldiers and sailors, sergeants and sergeant-majors!
Comrade officers, generals and admirals!
Dear veterans! Citizens of Russia!
I congratulate you on this holiday – Victory Day!
I greet all of you who fought selflessly for this victory! All of you who fought on the frontlines and in the rear. All of you who fought for your Motherland and for other peoples’ freedom and independence.
Fifty-seven years have now passed since the end of that just war and our Great Victory. But this victory came at a terrible price – at the price of the lives of our fathers and grandfathers. They endured inhuman suffering but they put an end to the total extermination of people, saved our Fatherland, delivered the world from fear and gave it a future.
The enemy was unable to bring our people to its knees. We stopped the enemy here, outside Moscow, in 1941. In 1943, we broke the backbone of the enemy’s forces at Stalingrad and Kursk, and in 1945, we finished the enemy off in its own lair.
Here, on Red Square, our victorious soldiers threw 200 banners taken from the defeated Nazi armies at the foot of the Kremlin walls.
Our Armed Forces have kept this spirit of victory alive, this spirit that has always supported Russia’s military throughout history and that is its backbone and moral foundation.
The world has changed greatly over these last years but it is still very vulnerable. Again and again the forces of evil and violence raise their heads in our world. Today, they bear different names but their actions are the same. They still bring with them death and destruction, and it is our duty not to forget that at any moment they could become just as great a danger as was Nazism.
Victory Day is a lesson and a warning to us. It reminds us that adopting an international wait-and-see position and showing unjustified tolerance only served to make the fascists stronger. The international community’s lack of action at that time allowed the fascists to spread around the world and gave free rein to hatred and cruelty.
The only way to counteract threats such as these is for countries and peoples to unite. The anti-fascist coalition was proof of this. The allies were able to defeat the enemy at that time. And today, we have once more joined forces and are uniting against a common threat – the threat of terrorism.
Dear comrades!
Today is a day of national pride and of gratitude to our veterans. The dignity and unity of the generation of victors is the most precious heritage that has been passed on to us, their children and grandchildren.
Our fathers and grandfathers never waited for anyone to come from outside and save them. The greatness of our people and our country is the fruit of their own personal feats, their unity and heroic labour.
The times demand action from us, too. We must work honestly and have respect for ourselves and for our Motherland. During the cruel years of war the country rose as one to defend itself. We need just such unity today, too, in our peacetime lives. It is this that will assure a worthy future for Russia and that will assure the freedom and prosperity of our people.
I congratulate you on this great occasion!
Happy Victory Day!
Glory to our Fatherland!
Glory to the victors!
Hurrah!
May 9, 2002, Moscow