Tanks and nuclear missile launchers rumbled through Moscow’s Red Square yesterday for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Russia put on a display of power for its annual Victory Day parade.

President Dmitri Medvedev, its new commander-in-chief, issued a warning against efforts to change international borders, saying that “irresponsible ambitions” risked war across whole continents. In an apparent swipe at the West over support for an independent Kosovo, Mr Medvedev said that Russia objected to attempts to “interfere in other states’ affairs, not to mention attempts to revise borders”.

With his mentor Vladimir Putin, the new Prime Minister, standing behind him, Mr Medvedev went on: “We cannot tolerate disrespect for international law – the law that has been hard won by the entire international community, without which no safe life and fair world order is possible.”

May 9 is a public holiday in Russia marking the anniversary of the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany after a war that killed 26 million people in the Soviet Union. Mr Putin’s parents survived the 900-day siege of Leningrad, but an elder brother did not.

Mr Putin, as President, ordered the revival of the Soviet-era parade of military hardware for the first time since 1990. He and Mr Medvedev stood with veterans as 8,000 soldiers marched past followed by the display of firepower.

Apparently embarrassed at comparisons with their communist predecessors, however, the two leaders stood on a special stage built in front of Lenin’s mausoleum, which was completely hidden from view by a hoarding bearing the date May 9, 1945.

More than 100 vehicles – including armoured troop carriers, T-90 tanks and giant Topol-M nuclear missile launchers – paraded through Red Square while Mig fighters, Blackjack supersonic bombers, and a huge transport plane flew overhead.

The once-feared Red Army has shrunk dramatically since the Soviet collapse, from 4 million men to 1.1 million today. Soldiers paraded in new dress uniforms prepared by Moscow’s leading fashion designer.

Mr Putin has given Russia’s crumbling military a massive cash injection to modernise its capabilities, promising new missiles, bomber aircraft and submarines.

The defence budget has quadrupled since 2000, thanks to Russia’s booming oil and gas sales, and the Kremlin has earmarked $189 billion (£97 billion) to upgrade half of army and navy equipment by 2015.

Mr Putin told military chiefs in November to improve the combat readiness of Russia’s nuclear arsenal against “muscle-flexing” by Nato. He has denied “sabre-rattling” by reviving the Red Square parades. But the show of strength comes after a year in which Russia has clashed repeatedly with the West over Nato expansion and American plans to establish a missile defence shield in eastern Europe. Tensions over Moscow’s involvement in Georgia’s breakaway pro-Russian region of Abkhazia have also soared, with both sides claiming that they are close to war.

For ordinary Russians, however, the day is a chance to recall the heroism of their relatives and to enjoy the spring sunshine. Veterans covered with war medals applauded as they watched the troops and armour pass through Red Square to the sound of martial music from a 500-strong brass band. Vitaly Tolstov, 83, said: “I feel proud and happy. We have to show that we have the ability to defend our motherland.”

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