From Der Spiegel
By Matthias Schepp

For the first time since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has put on an arms parade to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany. Russians are impressed with the military show of strength, but in Eastern Europe the parade has reawakened old fears.

In the days running up to the parade, things in Moscow looked a bit strange. Tanks rolled down the streets in the direction of Red Square while fighter jets flew over the office blocks in the heart of the Russian capital. To Western observers, these scenes were anachronistic. If it weren’t for the hundreds of billboards and luxury boutiques, it would almost seem as if things had jumped back in time to the Soviet Union in 1990.

That was when the last parade with military hardware took place — almost 18 years ago. Back then, Moscow was gray and the Soviet Union was bankrupt.

During the three dress rehearsals for the victory parade, well dressed passers-by craned their necks to get a look at the T-90 tanks, while people sitting at pavement cafes were stunned and sometimes shocked to see Sukhoi fighter jets flying 400 meters above their heads.

When 8,000 soldiers and officers in new uniforms, created by star fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin, marched in front of the Kremlin, the assembled government elite and the last World War II veterans on Friday morning, it seemed as if Russia was searching for its future in the past. European diplomats spoke privately of “the wrong signal.”

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