No Pomp & Circumstance For Kiev's May 9 Victory Parade

Concorde Capital: This holiday’s celebrations were a marked change from the past. For the first time in a decade, Ukraine opted not to hold a lavish military parade to honor the Soviet Union’s victory over Germany in WWII. Instead, President Yushchenko and senior government officials marched with war veterans along Kiev’s central street, Khreshchatyk, and later shared the holiday meal and vodka shots with the veterans. Such populism was in sharp contrast to the Soviet-like May 9 celebrations in Moscow, when the entire city center was closed to the public. The move will undoubtedly help Yushchenko and Tymoshenko in the 2006 Parliamentary election campaign.