President Dmitry Medvedev struck a conciliatory note at Russia's Victory Day military parade on Sunday, urging world powers to unite for peace and defending his decision to invite NATO troops to march on Red Square.
Foreign troops from four NATO member states marched on Moscow's Red Square for the first time on Sunday as part of a parade marking the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Around 1,000 troops from Britain, France, Poland and the United States took part in the military parade, alongside some 10,000 members of the Russian army and soldiers from ex-Soviet countries Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
"Sixty-five years ago, Nazism was defeated and a machine that was exterminating whole peoples was halted," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in his speech. "There was one choice – either victory or to become slaves. The war made us a strong nation", he added