![]() ![]() ![]() 'They mobilised 300,000 people, and they say 200,000 should be here, can you imagine?' she added, while holding a banner with a photo of Putin on it. to get to the stadium,' a woman in her 50s from the Moscow region told The Moscow Times. ![]() 'I think that the organization is bad, they gave us a couple of buses, but there were a lot of people and we had to stay inside those buses. One flyer told students they would be given university credits and 'free food and gifts' if they attended, while another said they wouldn't have to attend lessons for the whole day.įor those who did attend, they complained about how 'bad' the organisation process behind the event was. Russians were also promised 500 roubles (£5.54) each if they attended Putin's speech, according to flyers published on Telegram. ![]() I wouldn't go to the event voluntarily,' a state employee told the newspaper. 'The authorities are using it as a propaganda tool to show off in the eyes of Z-patriots and those who watch TV. We have to go and there's nothing we can do with it. While Putin would have hoped the world would have believed that the tens of thousands of flag-bearing Russians had flocked to the stadium in genuine support for him - that was far from the truth.Įmployees at a government building in Moscow said 70 per cent of them had been forced to attend the rally, according to internal correspondence seen by The Moscow Times. Ukraine has accused Russia of kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children from territories it controls, something Moscow has denied, insisting it organised legal adoptions. Meanwhile, organisers brought on stage children from the Ukrainian Donbas, including from the port city of Mariupol, which was devastated by a long siege before Russia captured it. The Russian leader continued to peddle a false narrative about how Russia was fighting for its 'historical' lands in Ukraine. The audience, waving Russian flags, braved cold winter temperatures of -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit), to come watch patriotic performances and speeches. He was met with chants of 'Russia, Russia, Russia.' 'Today they are supported by the whole country,' Putin said of Russian forces in Ukraine, adding he had just been updated by military chiefs on the situation at the front. Putin insisted the whole country stood behind the Russian soldiers waging the war - seemingly forgetting anti-war protests that his police officers have cracked down on. We are proud of them,' Putin said at the 'Glory to Defenders of the Fatherland' event, held on the eve of Russia's February 23 holiday celebrating those who serve in the armed forces. 'They fight heroically, courageously, bravely.
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