Tanks growled across Red Square and fighter jets streaked overhead as Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II with a mass-ranked display of military might.
Moscow's rift with the United States and Europe was strikingly apparent as anti-Western leaders lined up with President Vladimir Putin to watch 15,000 troops march below the walls of the Kremlin.
The Russian President's guests underlined the split with the war-time allies including Britain, France and the US, whose leaders boycotted the event in protest at Moscow's intervention in the Ukraine crisis.
Instead, the stands in front of Lenin's tomb were filled with a motley group including leaders from Central Asia and the Caucasus, Raul Castro of Cuba, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Abdel-fattah al-Sisi, the leader of Egypt.
The guest of honour was Xi Jinping, the President of China, in a sign of flourishing Sino-Russian ties in the face of EU and US sanctions on Moscow. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, also skipped the festivities but was due to lay wreath at Moscow's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier today.
