this is g.w. news live from berlin and russia commemorates the soviet victory over nazi germany in world war 2 but this year's victory day celebrations in moscow were scaled down it was bare minimum due to the covert 1000 pandemic the air force did fly overs but the main military parade in red square has been postponed and that was not the case in neighboring bella roods where the annual military parade all went ahead with hardly a facemask in sight president alexander lukashenko has dismissed the coronavirus as a psycho sex.

i'm claire richardson welcome to the show russia has been celebrating victory day marking 75 years since the defeat of nazi germany in world war 2 but this year's commemorations have been scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic with the red square military parade and a large scale procession of postponed. russia's parade of military might took to the sky today far above moscow where coronavirus precautions kept the streets nearly empty this picture a day. it had been planned to be an especially large celebration this year as russia 75 years since defeating nazi germany in world war 2. but the mass perceptions were off postponed by the pandemic. president vladimir putin did

lead to scale down ceremony at the eternal flame war memorial. but not a word about the virus instead his speech was a rallying cry to the nation. this is name during the year we know and firmly believe when we did we are invincible when we stand together but i think of us congratulations on victoria day or about. a day of pride in russia's past. but people here have plenty to grumble about corona virus infections are on the rise and the economy is shrinking. presiding over a time of national crisis hootin faces plenty of challenges ahead. i'm joined now by gustaf grass or senior policy fellow at the european council on

foreign relations because afaik so much for joining us how important are these victory day celebrations for the national psyche and russia's collective memory. well actually you should not underestimate them they move sort of at the center stage of the the national pride national identity thing the big 3 in the 2nd world war after many projects a cold war to be the sort of theme russianness should be about the russian exceptionalism should be about came out basically on talks or after orthodox conservative reason or or other experiments basically the victory in world war 2 is the most undisputed topic and was made the center stage theme of patriotism and reeducation in a patriotic sense of russia so he says gassed and major show of patriotism these anniversary celebrations that were meant to also be a show of power for president vladimir putin one he surely could have used as the

country's head hard by the current virus how can we expect these scaled back commemorations to affect his standing. oh well on the coronavirus he tried to sort of get the response ability to the local governments quite early on in a crisis which is if something superior in russia happens a severe domestic crisis he tries to delegate this to other people and especially to many other peoples whom he can try out and then basically the fire the incompetent all them promote the more competent members of neither of the 2 new greats in government coronavirus is no exception we also have to see that in russia they are quite at the beginning of the curve for brother in the middle of the rising curve there are roughly one and a half months behind europe in the crawl hours and now it's about to get really nasty. infections are spread on the countryside and in moscow you already have quite a high rate of death is so pulling off

a parade it would have poisoned basically the parade if he would pull it off in the form. in this situation so that's why you basically have to reach. but and russia it make speculation about how it's it's going to play out you know so that's right and russia is in the midst of a lockdown right now but in neighboring belarus for seeing quite a different picture there and major military parade took place in the capital let's take a look at how that when it's. physical distancing not in minsk. thousands of people packed together to watch the annual victory day military parade. few people wore masks becoming infected doesn't appear to be a major concern. sort of in 1900 want to 1905 finger much worse thousands millions of people died and no one was afraid of anything coronavirus will never defeat veterans and even less so in this long suffering country. there

are maybe fewer people this year some hope for the people have listened some are more afraid some less afraid anyway what can we do. valerie says vastly different approach to the coronavirus pandemic has caused concern and led to a strained relationship with close neighbors russia. moscow has publicly worried about the lax attitude take it by president alexander new. he has consistently dismissed the gravity of the pandemic. in this mad disoriented world there are people who denounce us for the time and place of the sacred events. i'd like to tell them humanely. don't rush to conclusions and

to condemn. the descendants of the victory of belorussian and. for now the approach by lucas shango appears to be unwavering despite sharply rising infection rates in batteries and warnings from the world health organization . so as we have seen at bellerive taking a very different approach there gustava does this have the potential to drive a wedge between russia and its neighbor. i would rather see it has the potential to really destabilize bellerose because as a said before during the beginning of the to spread of the pandemic there are one and a half months behind europe so now we have this sharp increase in the infection and if you don't go into lockdown now and under curve you will basically explode your your all your health care system and that is what is actually about to happen in belarus and increases in infections and spreads the amount of infected people per

100000 inhabitants is the highest in the whole pile so if you have the highest growth rates of newly infected people so. in some time from now he will probably have to reverse course but i did huge domestic toll and costs and he was a fairly popular will to crops until now economic growth he provided for some some sort of social benefits this might well year old to all these benefits he had with the storm population and i guess there will be a difficult time thereafter and thank you so much for that analysis for coming so. let's turn our attention now to the latest developments in the corona virus pandemic more than 3900000 people have now been infected with the coronavirus globally and more than 275000 have died egypt's president abdel fattah el-sisi has

approved amendments to his country's state of emergency they grant him and security agencies additional powers he says they're needed to come back over 19 meanwhile spanish prime minister pedro sanchez has said there will be a period of national mourning for the victims of the virus after restrictions are lifted across the country spain has one of the highest in death tolls in europe and south korea's capital saw has close hundreds of bars and nightclubs after a new covert 1000 cluster was linked to the city's nightlife scene. after weeks under coronavirus lockdown conditions some european countries are gradually relaxing restrictions and allowing more businesses to reopen here in germany restaurants in the northern state of mecklenburg western pomerania have opened their doors again diners cannot return to restaurant tables although they must set 1.5 metres apart from other groups and staff have to wear masks the state has one of the lowest infection rates in germany but authorities warn

a lockdown measures could return if infections rise. for more on how germany and other parts of europe are starting to reopen i'm joined by d.w. reporter joel dollar eye has been covering this story for us joe is it back to business as usual for restaurants in germany well not everywhere clear things are happening at different speeds in different places last week the german states the lend got the go ahead to start easing some of those restrictions and the state of mecklenburg west pomerania has raced ahead to open restaurants today however not all eateries are taking the opportunity to do so only about a 3rd are expected to open their doors that's because it's not clear if people are going to come back and also it's not clear if they can actually turn a profit while for operating at hof capacity as they have to under these lockdown measures they are however banking on an upcoming tourism boom that's because the state is going to open its doors to domestic tourists starting by the end of this

month and pomerania is in the north on the baltic coast so it's one of the few places the germans can go if they want to have a holiday on the beach this summer so it might be mecklenburg instead of my orca and what about in italy is life they're also ready to return to the streets well italy was the place that locked down 1st in europe under coronavirus measures and a lot of the cases are still quite high there things are starting to ease up restaurants are now allowed to serve takeaway food and drink and we've been seeing images of people out enjoying that in the streets and having a dream. with friends not everyone is very happy about this however there's some local mayors who say people are celebrating to eat or to quickly and that they will bring back measures if necessary i understand that italy has also seen some positive changes coming out of this lockdown especially for cyclists what can you tell us about that well traffic is reduced across europe and many cities are taking this chance to install more pedestrian friendly infrastructure has just rolled out

150 kilometers of brand new bike lanes and this in a city that used to have terrible cycle infrastructure these bike lanes are intended to help people be able to cycle around and not have to cram into public transport and the city says that they are here to stay we're seeing similar things going on in madrid where the city has just opened up 19 kilometers of inner city roads exclusively for people to go exercise this is so that they don't have to cram together in the parks and this is going to happen every weekend now obviously the authorities so it's not that things are returning to normal we're emerging now into cities that have changed and are seeing change for the better child all right thank you so much for that analysis. well thousands of people have been protesting in the german city of strike to guard against restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic the demonstration was allowed to take place after germany's constitutional court overturned an earlier ban munich berlin and frankfurt also saw similar

protests today. in india relatives of some of those killed in a gas leak took their loved ones bodies to the chemical factory where they died the protest on saturday comes as one local official suggested the company l.g. polymers my face charges of negligent manslaughter the week on thursday it killed 12 people and sent hundreds of others to hospital. german born magician roy horn of the duo sic freedom roy has died after contracting covert 19 horn and his partner siegfried fischbacher rose to fame through their las vegas shows featuring tigers which ended when horn was mauled by a tiger on stage in 2003 he died at the age of 75. little richard considered by some of the founding father of rock and roll has died he was 87 little richard roth and his distinctive voice flamboyant showmanship and

a lightning fast rhythm so popular music in the 1950 s. he was one of the 1st african-american artists to cross the music business is racial divide is best known hits include along the tall sally and to freddie. and a reminder of the top story we're following for you russia has marked the victory over nazi germany in world war 2 postpone the traditional military parade due to the coronavirus crisis. don't forget you can always get out of your news on the go just download our app from google play or from the app store that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any raking leaves and if your part of a news story you can also use the g. w. app to send us photos and videos of what's happening. you're watching t.w.

nativists a reminder you can get the latest on our website i d w dot com and you can follow us on twitter and instagram apps to tell you news i'm claire richards and more news coming up in 45 minutes. in the height of climate change in. africa. what's in store. for the future of the. c.w. comes from the mega city to the multimedia inside.