Debt Parade: The Kremlin turns Victory Day on May 9 to trade in loyalty of some foreign countries

In recent years, Russia has not celebrated Victory Day on May 9; the Kremlin has been buying the presence of representatives of foreign countries at the parade. For participating in the May 9 parade, certain foreign countries receive credit concessions, debt cancellation, or economic promises.

From Armenia to Venezuela, from Cuba to Burkina Faso, dozens of states are selling symbolic participation in the parade in Moscow in exchange for billions of dollars of Russian resources that could go to support their own Russian population.

Thus, in 2014, the Russian Federation wrote off $31.7 billion in debt to Cuba – the largest amount in its history. Armenia requested a write-off of $237.4 million (5.5% of the country’s external debt) for its president’s visit. Burkina Faso will receive $3 billion in Russian investment, including participation in a $20 billion project.

Guinea-Bissau asks for frigates and helicopters in exchange for diplomatic loyalty. Laos will have $960 million canceled and will continue to service existing loans through special arrangements with Russia.

In Myanmar, participation in the parade is actually the only element of maintaining relations between the sanction’s regimes of the Russian Federation and Myanmar. In 2023, Russia canceled about $23 billion in debts to African countries. Uzbekistan, which Russia had already forgiven debts, again owed $254.7 million, probably counting on a new restructuring.

While the Kremlin writes off billions in debts to foreign anti-democratic regimes every year, spending the money on pompous events, hundreds of thousands of people in Russia itself survive without basic infrastructure, medicine, and access to social services.

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More than 40% of rural areas in Russia do not have access to medical facilities. In Omsk, Kirov, Pskov and many other regions of the Russian Federation, hospitals and staff are being cut, while the state is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure abroad. The Kremlin literally replaces the well-being of its citizens with diplomatic selfies and phantom support for self-proclaimed leaders.

More than 10 million Russians live below the poverty line (according to official data), and even more live in conditions of social decline. In 2024, more than 4 million Russians live in housing that is officially recognized as dilapidated or uninhabitable. Over the past 10 years, due to lack of funding, more than 2,000 schools have been destroyed in remote regions of Russia. Russian villages in Siberia have been living without gas for years, while the Kremlin sells the resource to China and India at a discount of more than 40%.

Thus, Victory Day on May 9 in Russia is not about remembering World War II, it is about exchanging geopolitical “friendship” for Russian money.

Most of the foreign participants in the May 9 parade in Moscow are not allies of the Kremlin, but its financial debtors. Their participation is not a show of support, but a political service received on credit. By buying the loyalty of some foreign countries, Russia is weakening its own economy.

At the same time, the May 9 parade is a parade of contempt for one’s own people. Even the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s countries, such as Armenia and Kazakhstan, are openly distancing themselves from the Russian Federation and holding similar events on the occasion of May 9 on their territor