Putin shows off Russia's terrifying firepower at huge military parade

I'm impressed, like any operation, a parade develops troops and cohesion. I doubt if we could be as impressive as they are. They have a lot of tradition and unit pride. They fought a war in which 30 million Soviets died defeating 75% of the German Army. In europe VE day is a big deal. The British and French try to have parades with not enough troops. I remember a parade at Ft.Bragg with the entire XVIIIth Airborne Corps after the Cuban Crises. Of course I was pissed about standing around for hours but we were flexing our mussels.

It's a different mindset. I spent a year in Russia, and I was somewhat amazed by the number of memorials and monuments there. Why was I amazed? Because I grew up in the US, and we just don't do it here the same way. Keep in mind, WWII was fought on their soil. They lost a lot more people than we did, and we didn't have to bother with retaking territory that had been taken from us (except for a few of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska). So I don't blame them for making a really big deal over Victory Day. We might be doing the same thing if we had to retake and then rebuild our whole east coast.

Putins just being like a little kid with a lot of cool toys, and he just wants to show them off.