16-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Putin's Victory Day Parade of ‘World Leaders'
Vladimir Putin hosted 27 'world leaders' in Moscow for the May 9 parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, setting off buzz that Russia is breaking out of its diplomatic isolation. But only three of Russia's visitors lead their countries legitimately, having won free and fair elections: Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mongolia's Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh and Slovakia's Robert Fico. The rest of the attendees came from countries that Freedom House classifies as 'partially free' or 'not free.' Russia's alienation from democratic nations, including the world's freest and richest countries, is far from broken.
Until the Kremlin archives are open, we won't know what economic, military or diplomatic sweeteners Moscow dispensed to prod the 'leaders' to show up in Red Square, but the incentives for most of them aren't hard to imagine.
