St. Petersburg cancels Russian Navy Day parade for second year running

For the second year in a row, Russia has cancelled its traditional naval parade marking Navy Day, observed this Sunday. Despite the cancellation, President Vladimir Putin travelled to St. Petersburg, where he addressed sailors at the historic Admiralty building.

"Hello, comrades. Happy Navy Day," Putin said, according to Russia's state news agency TASS. The sailors responded with three rounds of "hurrah."

According to a Ukrainian outlet, Putin's visit to St. Petersburg coincided with widespread internet outages, which local residents complained about.

As the Kyiv Independent notes, since 2017 the parade of warships had been a fixture of the holiday, with Russia traditionally showcasing its naval strength by sailing vessels from the Baltic, Black Sea, Northern and Pacific fleets through St. Petersburg. This Sunday, however, the parade did not take place.

A Russian navy representative told the outlet Fontanka that the cancellation was due to the fact that "now is not the right time." The parade was also called off a year earlier, when officials cited security concerns as the reason.

Source: novinky.cz