Russia holds a massive celebration of the 70th anniversary

[deziloooooo]

 of the end of WW2 or as they call it , the "Great Patriotic War, in Moscow.. More then 16,000 people ..troops ..took part plus the normal complement of rolling stock..Tanks and Missile  carriers plus the fly over of numerous military aircraft...Foreign attendance , leading representatives of .China, India among manywere there too, but missing were most of the Western European representatives ..in protest of Russia recent take overs in the Crimea , Eastern Ukrain .....

Actually I disagree with this boycott....The Russian people lost over 26 million of their people in that war..not counting the physical destruction of property ...Who knows what the outcome of the war if they were not involved in it...It is a very very big and important issue / event...with the Russian people even today...actually of more importance  then in the west it seems..Possible we have moved on more.....Then again, even with our losses and such..as great as it was..it didn't approach theirs..{Russia..}

As far as our present disagreement with the current Russian leadership and their current doings..I feel the two are seperate issues...It seems there are always issues between nations..We can and do make our displeasure of their current doings known to their leadership by both diplomatic ways  and by financial boycotts...The cold war is dead..Russia is a strong nation militarily but it is no longer a super power..We, the USA is the only Super Power left...for what ever that means..and to  diss Russia on this occasion  , to me makes little sense...They , Russia , are needed to help try and solve some of the problems in the world..They are still very important, influential..a maker and shaker too....See their participation as one of the nations dealing with the Iranians over the nuclear issue..There they are mostly in agreement with us there ...Iran should not get these weapons..and there are other issues in the world they are and will be important in the future....To have dissed them on this important issue to them..and it was a important issue..26 million plus lost souls..that is a big issue..makes no sense..Actually surprised that our leader, Obama, didn't see their importance...He is big on trying to come to grips with other problem nations of the world..see Iran, Cuba as example..here , and as most here know, I am not a Obama basher but a supporter..believe he dropped the ball..big time . To send a high ranking..yes the VP if not himself..that was a natural thing to have done...We should have had a high profile presence IMHO there in celebration with them ...


edition.cnn.com/2015/05/09/europe/russia-victory-day-celebration/index.html

[deziloooooo]

You make a good point on the showing off of new modern weapon technology that Russia was putting on ..possible to intimidate their neighbors  ..however , their new Tank that was previewed here is really a prototype that is running into many problems of cost over runs and too expensive that our own weapon systems seem to be having...

On another site , it is mentioned this tank will not go into production for some years... Right now a limited are available for testing and such..cost has risen.. to 400 ,000 Rubles each...more then some of their Jet planes...so to show something in a parade is one thing..to be able to afford something , that is another thing entirely..

Actually I was surprised they were so concerned about Tank development..In our case, the ones in charge who seem to be the experts on these things, have said there is less need of Tank divisions..heavy armor today..In fact we have to many Abrams  now..are down sizing..mouth balling...giving away many of them to allies..Less need of since they don't see major armor battles such as the Russians coming into Europe or as was done in Iraq..large armor based warfare..

nationalinterest.org/blog/russias-armata-t-14-tank-super-weapon-12861