Pretty much the same thing but without Scott Baio and “Y.M.C.A.”, but celebrating the seizure of Crimea is what you do instead of the Great Patriotic War. “Trump-style” is an oxymoron.
“They packed us into a bus and drove us here,” one woman tells
@SotaVision
Polina Gagarina, once a Russian Eurovision contestant, absolutely butchering “Cuckoo” by the brilliant Soviet 80s rock band Kino. Nobody must have told her they were known for their *anti-war* songs
Dmitry Guberniev is best known as Russia’s unbelievably positive, hyperactive TV biathlon commentator. Now here he is introducing the leader of a Donbas separatist battalion
Seems every Russian pop star not already blacklisted for anti-war posts on Instagram is here. Oleg Gazmanov is leading the crowd in a singalong of a song about Russian army officers
The only more pro-war singer than Gazmanov is Nikolai Rastorguev, reputedly Putin’s favorite. You can kind of get the vibe of the music from this picture
Oddly, if you listen to the lyrics, the songs are about how bad war is. But nobody really seems bothered
Putin is about to speak at this rally, surprise surprise, per Kremlin pool
Here’s Putin. He seems to be on his own special giant stage so nobody can get within 20 yards of him even in a massive stadium.
The signs behind him say “For a world without Nazism / For Russia”
Putin is justifying the war by talking about the separatist conflict in Donbas.
“This really was genocide. Stopping that was the goal of the special operation.”
Something extremely odd just happened. Putin was halfway through his speech. He said, “By pure coincidence, the start of the special operation was on the birthday of…” – and then the feed suddenly cut out
Then the state TV feed cut straight to Oleg Gazmanov again. Where the hell is Putin? What happened?
Then just random footage of people chanting
Here's video of Putin suddenly vanishing mid-sentence. Where is he?!
State TV now showing RT’s Margarita Simonyan speaking, claiming it’s live, but am pretty sure this was actually an hour ago
Kommersant, citing a reporter inside the stadium, says Putin finished his speech and the concert is ending
State TV showing Putin’s speech again from the top
Turns out state TV cut out just before Putin finished the speech. He quoted Fyodor Ushakov, the legendary Tsarist-era admiral who is now the patron saint of Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber fleet, and left.
For someone who rails against western culture so much, the setup at Putin’s speech is very Wrestlemania. You half expect to hear glass breaking and see Stone Cold come out with a steel chair
Peskov confirms the feed cut out because of a server problem.
• • •
Thousands of flag-waving Russians crammed into Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium — the same arena that once hosted the FIFA World Cup finals — during a triumphal celebration Friday of the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
The event sharply underscored how much Russia — isolated by Western governments and shunned by global companies — has changed since 2018, when it opened its arms to the global soccer tournament.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, breaking from his recent image as a remote figure at the end of a very long table, strode about the stage, extolling the war against Ukraine as testament to Russia’s “Christian values.”
Wearing a cream turtleneck sweater and expensive navy quilted jacket, he said Russia took military action to stop “neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists” in Ukraine committing “genocide.” He has frequently repeated these claims to try to justify the invasion — and the Kremlin has used the same phrases as cornerstones of its propaganda against Ukraine.
But the video feed of his speech abruptly cut off mid-sentence, an interruption that was later described by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as a technical problem.
“Well, or sabotage,” tweeted the exiled Anti-Corruption Foundation of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Russian state television replayed the speech in full.
Even as Russian forces attacked Kyiv and blockaded civilians in Mariupol, the annual Crimea celebration was part of a massive propaganda effort to unite Russians behind the war and isolate opponents, who are branded traitors and “fifth columnists” by authorities. Other rallies were organized in cities across the country.
“It is to get people out of their misery, out of this genocide, that is the main reason, the motive and purpose of the military operation that we began in Donbas and Ukraine,” Putin said. “And this is where the words from the Scriptures come to my mind: ‘There is no greater love than if someone gives his soul for his friends’ ” — a variation of John 15:13.
He said Russian soldiers were “fighting shoulder to shoulder” supporting and covering one another and upholding Christian values. “We haven't had such unity for a long time,” he said.
www.washingtonpost.com/...