Tens of thousands took to the streets of Moscow to mark Unity Day. This year the parade had a distinct flavour of defiance against the West.
Flags of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine could be seen among the sea of tricolour Russian standards.
In the suburbs anti-immigration banners from nationalists filled the streets, signifying the growing strength of the pro-White movement.
In a show of disunity, a group of pro-Ukrainian demonstrators also joined the parades. Vladimir Ivanov came to the protest to protect the rights mentioned in the Russian Constitution, but also in a show of solidarity with their neighbours.
“We support the struggle of the Ukrainian people, because they are Slavic people like us and we are very glad that they have overthrown Yanukovich,” he said.
However, others wanted to show the strength of Russia.
“Russians should show that they are Russians, that they are masters in their country and on their land and not somebody else’s,” said march participant Andrei Ivanov.
Speaking at a gala reception President Putin said that ‘threats will not force us to abandon our values and ideals’. The West imposed sanctions on the Kremlin over the crisis in Ukraine, though Putin denies Russian involvement in the conflict.
Unity Day is celebrated annually on November 4, a date chosen by Putin in 2005. It commemorates Russia’s defeat of Po lish invaders in 1612. The holiday replaced the Day of Accord and Reconciliation established by former President Boris Yeltsin following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Before that November 7 was celebrated as the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.
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Russia's Unity Day march a show of defiance over Ukraine
Tens of thousands of people have marched through Moscow under flags and banners hailing Russia as a great power, in an annual parade which this year amounted to a show of defiance to the West over Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin did not join the march marking Unity Day but later delivered a speech portraying Russia as morally superior in the standoff with the West, adding that the country had united in the face of "difficult challenges".
Politicians went much further in their own displays of patriotic fervour at a concert after the march, which police said had attracted more than 70,000 people, some of them dancing and singing and many waving the Russian tricolour.
Others held banners and signs including one that said: "A people that is united is a people that cannot be defeated." Another read: "Our unity is our strength."
Some had banners supporting pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in east Ukraine.
At the open-air concert near Red Square, communist leader Gennady Zyuganov called for Russian recognition of elections held on Sunday to legitimise the separatists' self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in eastern Ukraine.
In a typically fiery speech, populist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky hailed Mr Putin for reclaiming Crimea from Ukraine in March and spat defiance at the West over sanctions imposed in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
"And Unity Day will come to Ukraine, but it will be Unity Day in Novorossiya and Malorossiya, and let people in western Ukraine have their own little state power," he said, referring to the territory in Ukraine which some nationalists regard as historically Russian.
"The United States can celebrate Independence Day, but they must remember the Russian Navy helped their struggle against the British colonialists.
"The Europeans can speak about democracy and human rights but the Soviet army liberated Europe from fascism which is again rising in west Ukraine and other areas."
Crooner Joseph Kobzon, who visited east Ukraine last week in a show of support for the rebels, said before opening the concert with a patriotic song: "We are strong and people fear us. Let them be afraid".
'We have had to face difficult challenges'
Unity Day commemorates a popular rising against a Polish invasion in 1612 and was revived under Mr. Putin in 2005.
Marches and rallies in Russia are often organised by groups loyal to the Kremlin or by factories that want to curry favour, but the authorities are likely to hold the march up as a display of unity behind Mr. Putin in the face of the Western sanctions.
The sanctions, which target people close to him and state companies in the energy, finance and defence sectors, are intended to weaken support for his policies, but polls show his popularity ratings are still greater than 80 per cent.
The desire for justice, for truth has always been honoured in Russia, and threats will not force us to abandon our values and ideals.--Vladimir Putin
Mr. Putin has hit back with some of the fiercest attacks of Western policy, and particularly the United States, since he first rose to power in 2000.
The ministry said 75,000 people attended the “We Are United” event in downtown Moscow alone
This has rallied support in Russia, though he risks being isolated by the West.
"Dear friends, this year we have had to face difficult challenges," he told a gala reception.
"And as has happened more than once in our history, our people responded by consolidating and with a moral and spiritual upsurge.
"The desire for justice, for truth has always been honoured in Russia, and threats will not force us to abandon our values and ideals."
He also placed flowers on Red Square with various religious leaders from different faiths and kissed an icon - again underlining his closeness to the Russian Orthodox Church, the religion practised by tens of millions of compatriots.
Since annexing Crimea following the overthrow of a Ukrainian president sympathetic to Moscow in February, Mr. Putin has defied the West by backing the separatists in mainly Russian-speaking east Ukraine.
He denied sending troops or weapons to back the rebels but the West said it has overwhelming evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine.
