2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade

The 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade, is an upcoming parade that will take place in Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in the Second World War at the Western front. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will also deliver his twelfth holiday address to the nation on this day. Being a landmark jubilee parade honoring the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in the European continent, this year's parade is also expected to be one of the biggest and largest to be held in Russian history.

Important dignitaries in attendance and parade information


Among those expected to come to this year's event is President of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolić, President of Vietnam, Trương Tấn Sang, President of China, Xi Jinping, the First Chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, and the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. In all, 26 international leaders are expected to be in attendance this year, including heads of UNESCO and the Council of Europe.

Countries that declined.  Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, USA, Finland, Croatia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia, Japan.

The 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the subsequent War in Donbass has caused a number of nations that fought in the war, especially those that participated in the parade of 2010 to not participate in this year's celebrations, including Germany, whose chancellor Angela Merkel instead will visit Moscow on May 10, a day after the parade itself. Those nations that will be absent from the celebrations will only have their ambassadors to the Russian Federation be present for the parade as part of the diplomatic corps in attendance.

Aside from the return of the T-34 tank and the SU-100 self-propelled gun, and the usual vehicles and planes in the mobile column and the flypast, making their parade debut this year are the following:


 * Bumerang armored personnel carrier
 * Kurganets-25 infantry fighting vehicle
 * T-14 main battle tank
 * 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled howitzer
 * Ural Typhoon MRAP
 * BTR-82AM Naval Infantry armored personnel carrier
 * Kornet-D/EM mobile antitank missile system mounted on the GAZ Tigr APC
 * K-300P Bastion-P mobile coastal defense missile launcher
 * RS-24 Yars mobile ICBM launcher
 * The brand new Crimean Wings (Krilya Tavrida) aerobatic team with 4 Yakovlev Yak-130s
 * Sukhoi PAK FA fighter jet

The Nakhimov Higher Naval Institute will make their return appearance in a Red Square parade since 1985, while the Pacific Naval Institute will be making its debut appearance this year, both in the march past segment, where they will be joined by a company sized formation from the Presidential Guard Regiment of Kazakhstan and several military contingents from other CIS nations, including the Armenian Army and the Azerbaijani Land Forces, all returning to the parade after a 5 year break, alongside first time parade participants from the armed forces of Serbia and Mongolia, and even The Grenadiers from the Indian Army. The BMD-4 infantry fighting vehicle will make its return to the mobile column after a 6 year break, together with the joint flight of the Russian aerobatics teams Russian Knights and Strizhi after a one year absence from the parade.

Also, several military vehicles that drove through the Red Square in the 1945 Victory Parade are being readied for their drivepast in other major Russian cities.

As per tradition, 26 other Russian major cities (Sevastopol and Kerch in the disputed Crimea included) will hold their parades, and joint civil-military parades will be hosted by 50 other towns and cities nationwide.

Preparation
Beginning in November/December 2014, preparations for the parade were well attended at the unit level. Individual unit practices were held in the various military installations for all the participating units, and by March 2015, the air flypast column began its individual practice flying runs. Also rehearsing for the parade are the massed military bands of the Armed Forces, the MVD, EMERCOM and the Moscow Garrison, all to be conducted for the 13th straight year by Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, the Senior Director of Music of the Bands Service of the Russian Armed Forces since 2002, with a combined number of more than a thousand military bandsmen, and the world famous Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music College "Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov", under the leadership of Colonel Alexander Gerasimov, the long-time college director, which has always (with a brief break from 2009 to 2011) had the privilege of leading the parade.

The parade practice runs officially commenced in the practice field at Alabino, Moscow Oblast, in April 2015, and will last until the middle of April when the runs on Red Square itself will start, ending with a final general combined practice run of the parade in early May. Before the first parade dry run, there was the first practice drivepast of the more than 100 mobile column vehicles in attendance this year, that first drivepast was held on March 27. During such a practice drill run several variants of the new Russian armored vehicle platform Armata were seen with turrets covered.

The first parade practice run on April 3, 2014 kicked off officially the preparation for the big parade, despite the snowy weather that day. Joining the first run-through rehearsal (for the march past segment and the mobile column only) was the first ever military women's contingent to march on Red Square for the very first time, composed of girl Cadet Corps students coming from the Moscow National Pensions School. This was followed by the first test run of the flypast column in the Alabino training grounds on April 9, with the more than 120 aircraft taking part in that first run-through of the flypast segment.

The April 15 2nd parade practice run witnessed the first practice march of a Cossacks contingent that on May 9 will be the first ever unit of its kind to march on the steps of Red Square after so many years.

Full order of the 2015 Victory Day Parade
Bold indicates first appearance, italic indicates multiple appearances, Bold and italic indicate returning appearance, all indicated unless otherwise noted.


 * General of the Army Sergey Shoigu, Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation (parade inspector)

Military Bands

 * Massed Military Bands of the Armed Forces under the direction of the Senior Director of Music of the Military Bands Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov
 * Corps of Drums of the Moscow Military Music School

Ground Column

 * 154th Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment Colour Guard and Honour Guard Company of the 1st Honor Guard Battalion, 154th PICR
 * Presidential Cavalry Escort Battalion, Kremlin Regiment
 * Suvorov Military School
 * Nakhimov Naval School
 * Kronstadt Sea Cadet Corps
 * Aksanskiy Cossack Cadet Corps
 * Moscow National Pensions School Cadet Corps (first appearance)
 * Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
 * Military University of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
 * Military Academy of Material and Technical Security "General of the Army A. V. Khrulev"
 * Zhukovsky – Gagarin Air Force Academy
 * Black Sea Higher Naval Military Institute "Admiral Pavel Nakhimov" (returning)
 * Pacific Naval Military Institute "Admiral Stepan Makarov" (first appearance)
 * 382nd Independent Marine Battalion of the Black Sea Fleet
 * 336th Independent Guards Biaystok Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet
 * Military Space Academy "Alexander Mozhaysky"
 * Peter the Great Military Academy of the Missile Forces of Strategic Importance of the Russian Federation
 * Ryazan Airborne Senior Command Academy "Gen. of the Army Vasily Margelov"'
 * 98th Guards Airborne Division
 * Engineering Forces, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence and Control Military Academy "Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko" (returning)
 * 1st NBC Coastal Brigade
 * 9th Chemical Disposal Regiment
 * 29th and 38th Independent Railway Brigades of the Russian Railway Troops
 * 16th Spetsnaz Brigade, Western Military District
 * ODON Ind. Motorized Internal Troops Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation "Felix Dzerzhinsky"
 * Civil Defense Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations
 * Moscow Border Guards Institute of the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation "Moscow City Council"
 * 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division "Mikhail Kalinin"
 * 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division "Yuri Andropov"
 * Military Technical University of the Federal Agency of Special Construction
 * Moscow Military Commanders Training School "Supreme Soviet of Russia"

Mobile Column

 * T-34
 * SU-100
 * GAZ Tigr (first parade with the Kornet D/EM mobile antitank missile system)
 * BTR Bumerang armored personnel carrier (first appearance)
 * BTR-82A
 * Ural Typhoon (First appearance)
 * Typhoon-K armored personnel carrier
 * BMP Kurganets-25 (first appearance)
 * BMD-4 (returning)
 * T-14 (first appearance)
 * 9P157-2 Khrizantema-S tank destroyer
 * 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled howitzer (first appearance)
 * 2S19 Msta-S
 * Buk-M2 missile system
 * Tor-M2U missile system
 * S-400 Triumf
 * K-300P Bastion-P (first appearance)
 * Pantsir-S1
 * 9K720 Iskander
 * RT-2PM2 Topol-M
 * RS-24 Yars (first appearance)

Air Fly Past Column

 * Mil Mi-26
 * Mil Mi-8 Colors Party
 * Mil Mi-24
 * Mil Mi-28
 * Mil Mi-35
 * Kamov Ka-52
 * Mikoyan MiG-29
 * Sukhoi Su-24
 * Sukhoi Su-34
 * Sukhoi Su-27
 * Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA (first appearance)
 * Mikoyan MiG-31
 * Ilyushin Il-76
 * Ilyushin Il-78
 * Tupolev Tu-22M3
 * Tupolev Tu-95
 * Tupolev Tu-160
 * Beriev A-50
 * Sukhoi Su-25
 * Antonov An-124
 * Antonov An-22
 * Yakovlev Yak-130 from the new aerobatic group Crimean Wings (first appearance)
 * Sukhoi Su-27 and Mikoyan MiG-29 of the Russian Knights and Strizhi (returning)