Officially, it was said that the weather was the big bummer for the canceled air show during the military parade in Moscow Monday. But little belief is placed on this outside of Russia. A Russia expert tells ‘Bild’ that the Russians were previously afraid of sabotage. “If a plane had been shot down, it would have been a disgrace to the eyes of the whole world.”
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The parade with troops and military ground equipment did take place — albeit in a slimmed-down form compared to last year — on May 9, the commemoration day of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany. The weather conditions clearly allowed that. They seemed even better than last year, when the air show could also take place. But not this year, “due to unfavorable weather”.
Russia expert Sergei Sumlenny, who headed the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Kiev for six years, sees this argument as a pretext. According to Sumlenny, the Russians were mainly afraid of sabotage, because “the routes and times of the flyover” were known through the rehearsals. “Nothing could have been worse than a plane being shot down. That would have been an embarrassment to the world.” According to Sumlenny, Russia did not want to make a fool of itself by putting on a super show, while they have not yet achieved any major victories in Ukraine, except for the capture of Kherson. ‘Bild’ therefore calls the cancellation a symbol of the “war debacle that Putin has experienced in Ukraine until now”.
‘Forbes’ also talks about the “unreliability of the Russian air force”, which is unable to control Ukrainian airspace. The US business newspaper also cites a lack of pilot training and proper equipment maintenance. Also according to Forbes, flying military planes over Moscow would have embarrassed Russia, because “Russian air force is clearly collapsing under the ongoing combat operations”.
doomsday plane
The highlight of the airshow should have been the overflying of the so-called ‘Doomsday plane’, the Ilyushin Il-80. This “flying Kremlin” is to serve as the airborne command center of Putin and other top officials in the event of a nuclear war. It has been 2010 since the Ilyushin Il-80 was staged during the military parade on May 9. This year, the plane only flew over Moscow during rehearsals and not on May 9 itself, possibly because it was defective. The Ilyushin Il-80’s failure to participate may have resulted in the entire air show being cancelled. The absence of the ‘Doomsday plane’ would have been the topic of conversation in retrospect. It could also be that the bad weather was a factor. Sub-optimal conditions may have posed too great a risk for the authorities to stage their “second-choice pilots” in front of a global audience — now that their best fighter pilots are waging war in Ukraine.
What also cannot be ruled out, Forbes reports, is that a shortage of fuel played a crucial role. Fighter planes are, after all, greedy gas guzzlers. This argument could also explain why the traditional air show on Liberation Day was also canceled in other Russian cities.
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