In pictures: Putin’s power on parade

Last year’s Victory Day parade was an embarrassing affair for Vladimir Putin. Just nine other heads of state turned up and the only one who wasn’t a) leader of a former Soviet republic or b) a communist, was the president of Guinea-Bissau (pop 2.1 million).

This year’s event, which took place on Friday, was very different. If one was searching for an image of the emerging new world order, they would find it in Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, deep in conversation with his Russian counterpart.

The other guests were also notable. An EU leader in Slovakia’s Robert Fico, a Middle East powerbroker in the form of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and a global south icon, Brazil’s Lula da Silva.

The war in Ukraine, the west’s support for Israel and Donald Trump’s attempted destruction of the western alliance have all helped to fracture long-standing alliances across the world. In Moscow on Friday, the impact of those changes was there to be seen.

Perhaps the only surprise was that Putin and Xi were not joined by another increasingly autocratic leader of a great power. But maybe that’s for next year’s parade.