Putin's two Victory Day celebrations, which included a massive show of military muscle in the annual Red Square parade in Moscow and another in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, rubbed salt in the wounds of the interim government in Kiev without ever once mentioning its name.
Victory Day is Russia's most important secular holiday and a key element of the country's national identity, honouring the armed forces and the millions who died in World War II.
This year it comes as Russia is locked in the worst crisis with the West since the end of the Cold War. Tens of thousands flooded the Crimean port of Sevastopol to watch the extravaganza that was the Russian leader's entrance.
Putin boarded a boat to sail past a line of Russian Black Sea Fleet ships anchored in the bay and greeted their crews before watching a flyby of 70 military aircraft.
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