What will happen on May 9? This is the question asked this morning to Nina Bachkatov, doctor in political science at ULiège and specialist in Russia, in Matin Première. In Russia, Vladimir Putin is organizing a great military parade. For the Soviet Union, May 9 is the equivalent of our May 8.
This date marks the end of what is called over there the “Great Patriotic War“. It is therefore the celebration of the Nazi surrender in 1945. This year, Vladimir Putin intends to make this national holiday resonate in the context of the war in Ukraine.
A great popular festival
In Russia, recalls Nina Bachkatov, doctor in political science at ULiège and specialist in Russia at the microphone of Matin Première, May 9 is first and foremost a popular holiday. “It is a very big popular festivalshe says, the day is a public holiday and so everyone goes down to the city center, to the parks, etc. It’s a moment that I always really liked when I was in Moscow. That said, if I was in Moscow this year, I’m not sure I would go. One has the impression that this popular celebration has been kidnapped for such an overtly political purpose and which at the same time is not very clear either. It would make me uncomfortable.”
It might be extremely verbally abusive.
Nina Bachkatov concedes at the same time that this date has been politicized for years, depending on relations with the West and with the countries of the former Soviet Union. She finds it difficult to predict what Vladimir Putin will say in his speech: “We can only speculate. What we have as an indication, all the same, is what he said this Sunday, which was not very nuanced, not very diplomatic and in which he spoke once more of denazification. […] It might be extremely verbally abusive.”
A general mobilization?
According to Western and Ukrainian officials, Vladimir Putin might take advantage of this day of celebration to decree general mobilization. “I can expect anythingreacts the Russian specialist, but I don’t know if you can imagine: trying both to place the Soviet victory in a context of pacifying Europe and at the same time telling people that we risk sending their conscripted sons to the front, that’s is still difficult to reconcile.”