Victory Day in the shade of Mother's Day

A Russian friend sent me an email with congrats on Victory Day (May 9), to which I replied that here in the US, we are more preoccupied with events like Mother's Day, and in today's Russia, all the pomp around V-Day is simply because it helps Putin/Medvedev's clan to foster Great Russia pride in the discontent and cynical population. My friend was really upset with my answer, and I am trying to explain my position on this matter.

Sergey, I am really sorry if I offended your feelings. I guess I owe an explanation of my arrogant, non-patriotic answer to your message. Like everyone who was born in the USSR I know the historic impact and importance of May 9 - Victory Day. I take off my hat to Soviet soldiers who saved the world from Nazis.
 
But after living in a country which was USSR’s ally in WW2, and seeing how different life here and there is, I cannot help being disgusted by how your rulers treat Russian people including the veterans of that horrible war. What they do to their people and veterans is obscene!

Here’s an example from my family. Muzhikov, Anatoly Nikolayevich is my aunt Tatiana’s husband. He is a decorated war veteran, who fought in that war from day one and finished it participating in the Berlin offensive as a reconnaissance platoon commander. Among his medals are some of the most prestigious, like the Order of Aleksandr Nevskiy and the Red Banner Order.

Every time I visit Russia, I stay with my aunt, and each time, when I look at their life, Igor Talkov’s song «Globus» rings in my ears:

«Покажите мне такую страну, где святых унижают,
где герои, ветераны войны живут хуже рабов»
(Show me a country where saints are humiliated,
where heroes, war veterans are treated worse than slaves)

Please watch a short video I’ve made specially for you, and tell me what changed in Russia in two decades since Talkov wrote and performed this song? Except that you now have more than a hundred billionaires according to Forbes Magazine.