The Russian president was seen looking somewhat distant and unimpressed by the official parade in St Petersburg on Sunday (Picture: AFP)
Russia may be proud of its military history and seamen – but Vladimir Putin looks like he would have preferred to be anywhere else during the nation’s state naval display on Sunday.
The Russian president hardly cracked a smile at this morning’s Grand Naval Parade in St Petersburg, a showcasing of around 200 ships and boats all part of the various fleets stationed in Russia’s second city.
During the event, he was seen looking bored and unbothered as he sailed across the city’s water and into the dock while fireworks exploded around him.
The parade is held on Russia’s Navy Day, celebrated annually on the last Sunday of July, with roughly 3,000 military personnel taking part each year.
Putin’s appearance at the state naval event comes amid mounting rhetoric from Moscow about a new Cold War.
The Russian president said on Sunday morning that if the US decides to station long-range nuclear missiles in Germany, then Moscow would be forced to respond by placing its own arsenal within striking distance of NATO members.
Sunday’s Grand Naval Parade involved roughly 200 vessels from a variety of different fleets stationed in St Petersburg (Picture: AFP)
Speaking from the display in St Petersburg, Putin told officials and foreign diplomats: ‘The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes.
‘We will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.’
He added: ‘If the United States carries out such plans, we will consider ourselves liberated from the unilateral moratorium previously adopted on the deployment of medium- and short-range strike capabilities.’
It comes amid mounting rhetoric from Moscow about a new Cold War with the West (Picture: AFP)
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has been cast by many on the global stage as a proxy confrontation between Russia and the West – reminiscent of the deep tensions that followed the end of the Second World War, which framed some of the most significant geopolitical events of the second half of the twentieth century.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has over the weekend continued to push on with drone attacks against targets located deep within Russian territory.
Recent blasts at an oil terminal in the eastern Kursk region are widely seen as taking something of the shine off today’s parade in St Petersburg, with Russia’s naval fleet in the Black Sea already rendered largely unoperational by repeat Ukrainian attacks.
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