Tanks, jets may return to Moscow parades-general
MOSCOW, May 4 (Reuters) In a nod to Soviet-era festivities, tanks and missile launchers may return to Moscow's Red Square during military parades, a general said today.
Until a few years ago, lorries and cruise missiles trundled across the cobbled square past a podium bearing the Russian head of state and prominent politicians.
At the height of the Cold War, military jets thundered above the heads of goose-stepping troops and veterans emblazoned with medals showcasing the Soviet Union's military might.
The absence of military technology from festive marches in Red Square is temporary and was caused by a lack of funding, Itar-Tass news agency cited General Vladimir Bakin in charge of Moscow region troops as saying.
''The issue is being discussed. We have enough to showcase,'' he told journalists.
Bakin will be in command of a parade on May 9 to celebrate the end of World War Two, Itar-Tass said.
Bakin said foreign military representatives used to come to Moscow to film or take pictures of Russia's military equipment.
Since becoming president in 2000, Vladimir Putin has revived much of the Soviet Union's iconography and restored the melody of the national anthem first commissioned by Josef Stalin.
Reuters
KK
DS1635