Intercontinental nuclear missiles will be front and center at a Red Square spectacle Monday, just like the May 9 military parades during the Cold War.
A gesture of desperation, the parade aims to scare the West into giving up a coordinated effort to help Ukraine beat off the Russian aggression.
We should simply dismiss that nuclear saber rattling as an empty threat.
The demonstration follows nuclear-war threats made recently by Russian President Vladimir Putin, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, his spokesman, and multiple TV anchors.
That’s just a knee-jerk reaction to the financial and economic sanctions and the efforts by the United States and its allies to arm the Ukrainian military with powerful modern weapons that have proved so effective against the Russian invaders.
The irony is that there will be no Western guests at the parade to impress.
Ostracized by the civilized world over the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, the Kremlin made a point of not inviting any in order to mask its isolation.
What’s even more ironic, if tragic, is that the annual parade that celebrates Russia’s part in the defeat of German aggression is simply out of place now that Russia is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine.
Moreover, atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine rival those by Nazi Germany.
The parade just underscores Russia’s changed role in respect to Ukraine, and effectively to the United States — from a partner to an adversary.
The Kremlin should have done itself a favor, and simply canceled it.
The parade’s Russian name — Parad Pobedy, or Victory Parade — is a misnomer now that a 40-nation anti-Russian alliance was struck last month at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany, all but guaranteeing that Russia loses this war.
When Ukraine transferred its nuclear arsenal to Russia in 1994, the United States, the United Kingdom — and, again ironically, Russia — in return assured Ukraine’s security and formalized that promise in the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances.
It is, therefore, not only in our interest but also simply our duty to help the Ukrainians fight the imperialist Putin regime, which seeks to reverse the outcome of the Cold War and threatens the rest of Europe and the United States.
Like the Cold War of the past, the new Cold War that was effectively declared on Russia at the Ramstein Air Base will also eventually be lost by Russia.
This time around, however, we should not repeat the mistakes that followed the downfall of the Soviet Union. If we want to preempt a repeated resurgence of Russian imperialism, it is critical that what once happened in Germany after the end of WWII happens in Russia once Ukraine wins the war.
That’s demilitarization and lustration — a purge of government officials which was adopted in Germany after WWII and by Czechoslovakia and Estonia after the Warsaw Pact fell apart with the dissolution of the Soviet Union from 1988 to 1991.
Those two things never happened in Russia.
That’s why an ex-KGB officer was allowed to lead Russia and to eventually turn lingering Russian chauvinism and imperialism into a national doctrine.
And that’s why Russia under Mr. Putin continues to seize territories in Europe, just as it did under the czars and the Soviets alike.
The sanctions – most important, the oil embargo – should, therefore, be left in place not only until Russia cedes all the Ukrainian territories it has seized, including Crimea and Donbas, but until it gives up its nuclear arsenal and executes lustration.
Meantime, a guaranteed-mutual-destruction balance between the West and Russia will keep us safe, just as it did during the 45 years of the Cold War.
During the May 9 parade, a Russian airborne command and control aircraft – aka the Judgment Day plane that would be evacuating the country’s top leadership in case of an all-out nuclear war – will be flying overhead to drive home Mr. Putin’s message: “Don’t push us, or else.”
Just ignore it.
First Published May 8, 2022, 12:30 p.m.
