Two weeks ago, Ukrainian businessman Volodymyr Yatsenko offered 20 million hryvnias (almost half a million euros) to whoever sends a drone to Russia and lands it in Moscow's Red Square on May 9, during the military parade of Day of Victory. After this announcement, accompanied by the repeated arrival of Ukrainian drones in various regions of Russia, the theory has been launched in the media and social networks critical of the Kremlin that the closure of the center of Moscow is in response to the possible impact of these devices. The press close to Russian power has responded that this is nothing more than disinformation coming from Kyiv.
The truth is that the Russian authorities have announced this week that they are closing public access to Red Square for two weeks prior to the military parade that this year will mark the 78th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II .
Moscow has promoted the Victory Day celebrations in recent years to infuse patriotism and support for its armed forces into Russian DNA. On May 9, military parades are held in the main Russian cities. This year they are planned in at least 25 cities.
The Presidential Guard, in charge of Kremlin security, announced that "in connection with the preparation and celebration of solemn events, Red Square will be closed to the public from April 27 to May 10, 2023." He did not explain, however, for what reason.
Never before had access to Red Square been restricted for such a long period. It didn't happen in the year of the coronavirus pandemic, 2020, when the parade was postponed to June, or last year, even though Putin had sent the army into Ukraine just three months earlier. In 2022, Plaça Roja was closed between May 4 and 10. In 2018, the measure was applied between May 4 and 9 and in 2019, between May 6 and 9.
During the first months of the Russian military intervention in the neighboring country, artillery fire was sporadically recorded in Russian regions close to the border, especially in Belgorod, Briansk and Kursk. The list has been expanding as drones have taken part in these attacks. The arrival last year of two of these devices at separate Russian military airfields in Saratov and Ryazan, hundreds of kilometers from the border, demonstrated Ukraine's ability to reach targets inside Russia.
In February, a drone was found near the city of Kolomna, about a hundred kilometers from Moscow. On Monday, one was found crashed in the Bolgorodsky district, 30 kilometers east of the Russian capital. According to the local press, it was the third in two days.
For security reasons, on May 9 this year there will be no military parades either in Belgorod or Kursk, and neither in the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014 and a territory also periodically affected by Kyiv's drones.
In Moscow, the military standstill remains. However, the Workers' Day demonstration on May 1 will not be held. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions announced its cancellation in mid-April due to "the high level of terrorist threat".
On April 2, a bomb attack ended the life of military blogger Vladlén Tatarski in St. Petersburg, an action that Russian authorities described as terrorist and whose organization they attributed to the Ukrainian secret services.
Nor will the march of the "Immortal Regiment", a recent tradition that began in 2011 in Tomsk and takes place every May 9 after the military parade, be celebrated, neither in Moscow nor in any other Russian city. In the crowded procession, the participants carry portraits of relatives who fought in the "Great Patriotic War", which is what the Russians call the part of the Second World War that touched them. In 2020 and 2021 this action was carried out via the internet due to the coronavirus. This year it can adopt the same format, which will be decided by each region of the country. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 12 million people took part in this march in 2022.
