In a side-street off Red Square I gauge public reaction. Do Russians care about an absence of tanks at this year’s Victory Day parade?
“There is a safety issue,” concedes Sergei. “But parading our military hardware shows our strength on the world stage. Perhaps we should be displaying something.”
“I understand it would be foolish to showcase [hardware] in case something happens during the parade,” says Yulia. “On the other hand, this means that we are afraid of something. And that’s not great, either.”
“The parade, of course, is a symbol,” believes Vladimir. “But if circumstances don’t allow it to take place in full, we’ll have to wait a year for that.”
A scaled-back parade, too, is a symbol: of a country that has failed to secure victory in Ukraine after more than four years of war. In January the conflict passed a milestone: Russia’s war on Ukraine has gone on longer than the Soviet Union’s fight against Hitler’s Germany, which is known here as the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
Are there consequences for Vladimir Putin?
Recent polling – including by state-run agencies – suggests his domestic approval rating is falling.
Towards the end of last year, the Kremlin leader was on TV in military fatigues several times, oozing confidence, as he discussed the Ukraine war with his generals. We’ve seen far less of “Commander-in-Chief” Putin this year.
From my conversations with Russians, it feels like there is growing fatigue here with the war on Ukraine, increasing concern about the cost of living, and immense irritation with recent state-imposed restrictions on the internet.
Russian authorities have warned that on Victory Day in Moscow there will be restrictions on mobile internet: in the interests of security, they insist.
Officials claim that digital shutdowns, which have hit many Russian towns and cities in recent months, are designed to prevent Ukrainian drone attacks and acts of sabotage. But they are deeply unpopular across the country.
The authorities don’t appear particularly bothered by that.
“It’s not your business, with all respect, what we are doing with our internet,” MP Yevgeny Popov tells me. “It would be better to be with no internet than to be killed by a Ukrainian missile or drone.”
