Putin Calls for Unity on Victory Day

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, May 12, 2003

Putin Calls for Unity on Victory Day

Hundreds of thousands of people on Friday commemorated the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany 58 years ago on Red Square in Moscow.

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Hundreds of thousands of people on Friday commemorated the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany 58 years ago on Red Square in Moscow.

Addressing a military parade on Red Square, President Vladimir Putin made an explicit link between terrorism and Nazism and called for "the priceless experience of unity" that helped defeat Nazism in 1945.

"A new, global and very serious peril has emerged in the world -- international terrorism. To counteract it, the efforts of all civilized countries must be united," Putin, standing near Lenin's mausoleum, told 5,000 troops and cadets lined up on the gray cobblestones of Red Square.

He paid tribute to World War II veterans, hundreds of whom -- with medals gleaming on their chests -- came to see the parade.

In a veiled reproach to the United States and its war on Iraq, Putin said, "We should not forget why fascists assumed the right to decide the fate of the world and the fates of other countries and peoples, why they got the false idea of considering themselves history makers and hoped to escape punishment."

Several groups of veterans waving red banners marched with Communist leaders along downtown streets after the Red Square parade and called for the ouster of the Cabinet.

Well over a half-million Moscow residents celebrated Victory Day by heading outdoors, according to City Hall. Police told Itar-Tass on Saturday that more than 4,500 people were detained Friday, most of them for drunk and disorderly conduct.

Source: Agencies

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