Agence France Presse — English
May 9, 2005 Monday 10:47 AM GMT
Outtakes from Moscow WWII commemorations
MOSCOW
Herewith some of the not-so-scripted moments seen on the sidelines of
the highly choreographed Moscow ceremonies marking the 60th
anniversary of the end of World War II.
Putin offers to protect Bush from fresh Laura attack
MOSCOW: Security was ratchet-tight when Vladimir Putin hosted George
and Laura Bush to dinner in his country dacha — but the Russian
leader conceded that some attacks come under the radar: namely from
one’s wife.
The US president is still smarting from the US First Lady’s colourful
mauling of him at a US press event last week, when she notably chided
him for going to bed early, sarcastically calling him “Mr
Excitement.”
“I took a look at coverage of your meeting with the press and I could
see how Laura could attack you sometimes,” said Putin. “So I think we
shall have a good chance to protect you.”
Bush, who famously said he “looked into the soul” of Putin at their
first meeting five years ago, made light of his ordeal, which also
saw his wife compare herself to a “Desperate Housewife” from the hit
US television series.
“She is quite a comedian,” he said.
Russian communist hails ‘great leader’ Stalin
MOSCOW: Vladimir Putin may have been careful not to overly offend
Western political sensibilities at Monday’s World War II
commemorations — but his discretion was compensated for by Communist
Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.
“We won because the people defended Soviet power and because it was
ruled by its great leader, commander in chief Stalin,” he told a
group of communist sympathizers even as Putin hosted world leaders on
Moscow’s Red Square.
Speaking outside the Russian capital’s Belarus station — from where
Soviet forces back from the battlefronts returned 60 years ago — he
also defended the 1939 Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between Germany and
the Soviet authorities.
“Why does the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact produce such bitterness?” he
asked. “It’s thanks to this pact that Japan decided not to attack the
USSR and that Turkey decided not to take part in the war at all.”
Across town on Red Square, Putin was more circumspect, hailing the
Soviet role in defeating the Nazis, but also paying tribute to other
European countries in defeating Hitler. “We never divided victory
into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’.”
World leaders in display of reconciled unity — or not
MOSCOW: Over 50 world leaders were united Monday in hailing the
defeat of Nazi Germany 60 years ago, with Russian President Vladimir
Putin vowing to ensure such conflicts never again scar the face of
the earth.
But not everyone saw eye to eye on everything.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Robert
Kocharian, whose countries have been at war for years over the
disputed enclave of Nagorny Karabakh, were for example visibly
avoiding each other’s gazes.
Aliyev even boycotted a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent
States on the eve of Monday’s ceremony to avoid meeting Kocharian —
all the more so on May 8, the anniversary of the capture of the Azeri
town of Shousha by the Armenians.
At the other extreme, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev annoyed
press photographers while standing in their sight line as he waited
at length to talk with US President George W. Bush. In the end he was
granted a brief audience.
Bush, before taking his seat next to Putin to watch the spectacular
military parade, was also seen chatting for several minutes with
Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Russia’s air force wins epic battle – against the weather
MOSCOW: Specially equipped Russian Air Force planes won a
white-knuckle battle with the weather over Moscow on Monday and
managed to prevent rain from marring a Red Square military parade
attended by more than 50 world leaders.
Beginning at dawn, a fleet of 11 Ilyushin-18 and Antonov-12 planes
seeded chemical dispersal agents into bad weather upwind of Moscow,
Air Force Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky told the state-run ITAR-TASS
news agency.
Until the last minute, it appeared that their efforts, honed with
decades of experience dating back to the Soviet era, would fail.
Huge clouds gathered over Moscow and the Red Square parade ground
where thousands of troops were massing to commemorate victory over
Nazi Germany 60 years ago. Drizzle forced Russian President Vladimir
Putin to greet guests outside the Kremlin under umbrellas.
About 15 minutes before the parade, the rain stopped and patches of
blue sky appeared, announcing a dry spell that held for the duration
of the hour-long military extravaganza.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress