Vladimir Putin takes swipe at US during military parade speech

Russia shows off its military hardware Russian president Vladimir Putin used the 70th anniversary of the end of world war two in Europe to call for a global non-bloc security system in a swipe against the US, which is boycotting the celebrations in Moscow.

"We have seen attempts to create a unipolar world, we see gaining momentum as a force of bloc thinking," Mr Putin said, addressing foreign leaders, war veterans, VIPs and thousands of soldiers assembled on Red Square for a massive military parade.

"Our common goal should be the development of a system of equal security for all states. Systems, adequate to modern threats, built on regional and global, non-bloc basis. Only then can we ensure peace and tranquillity in the world," Mr Putin said.

US attempts at building a unipolar world and Nato bloc building have been raised repeatedly by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and with increasing urgency by Mr Putin in recent years.

But the proposal for a global non-bloc security system is the most concrete indication yet as to how he would address international security, which he claims is broken.

Mr Putin's speech began a parade at which 16,000 soldiers marched through Red Square, fighter jets roared overhead and some of Russia's most modern military gear rumbled past the Kremlin.

Russians on the grandstand cheered and clapped when the Armata tank - Moscow's most prized piece of new gear for its ground forces which is set to enter service next year - drove by and also when a formation of fighter jets flew overhead.

At a rehearsal on Thursday, the Armata tank had stalled opposite the Lenin Mausoleum. An attempt to tow it with another tank also failed, triggering ridicule on social media, before another driver took charge and drove the tank out. On Saturday, the parade was completed flawlessly.

On Saturday central Moscow was flooded with people carrying flags, historic military berets and Saint George ribbons, a symbol of an 18th century military order which has become a sign of Russian patriotism.

Less than 30 foreign leaders attended the ceremony, down from more than 50 a decade ago.

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The Russian president watched the parade flanked by China's president Xi Jinping and leaders from central Asian allies, such as Kazakhstan and non-western leaders including Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Mr Putin invoked the immense sacrifice and contribution the people and the armed forces of the Soviet Union had made to defeat Nazi Germany and liberate Europe from it. He made special mention of China as the country with the second-largest losses, a tribute that comes as the west's sanctions and political isolation have left Moscow dependent on Beijing.

But Mr Putin also gave credit to the Soviet Union's WWII allies, whose role Russian propaganda had sought to de-emphasise in the run-up to the anniversary amid Moscow's fallout with the west.

Mr Putin said the meeting of Soviet and US forces on the German river Elbe in 1945 reflected trust, unity and joint striving for peace and stability by different peoples, values which had become the basis of the post war world order, principles that he said were increasingly being ignored.

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