It's the day before the big Victory Day parade in Moscow, honoring the 65th anniversary of victory in World War II. For the first time, the parade will include representatives from allied militaries, including the U.S., Britain and France but also several from our area of the world, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan. (Not, you'll notice, Georgia or Uzbekistan.)
Turkmenistan is especially proud of its contingent, whose commander will be on a white Akhal-Teke stallion, named Arab. But this is not just any horse, but a direct descendant of the horse Marshall of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov rode in the 1945 parade:
The 11-year-old horse from the stables of the President of Turkmenistan, a model horse-breeding farm with an elite core of thoroughbred Akhal-Teke horses, was transported to Moscow in late April. Since then, Gyrat has been kept in the equestrian club CSKA under the supervision of stablemen and veterinarians. He is transported in a special trailer to rehearsals in the heart of Moscow.
The first time the stallion set his foot on the Kremlin's pavement was May 2, during the first night rehearsal of the parade, and marched several times in the direction from the Historical Museum to Vasilyevsky Slope as part of the foreign military contingent. As an experienced participant of military parades in his homeland, Gyrat got scared neither of the composite orchestra music, nor of the polyphony of three-time "Hurrah", nor of the crash of tens of thousands of soldiers' boots.
In the course of rehearsals the parade organizers did not have a single criticism for the coherent march of the armed forces of Turkmenistan who will bring up the rear of foreign soldiers, as if opening the so-called historical part of the parade.
Meanwhile Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is celebrating the anniversary by visiting his troops in their element:
The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, visited the military anti-aircraft defense unit near Astana in the settlement Akmol, sang a song Katyusha with the military men, and had field kitchen dinner...
I urge the Kazakhstan MoD to release a video of that singalong.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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