Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Moscow Victory Day Parade is an annual military parade held by the Russian Armed Forces on Red Square every the 9th of May. It commemorates the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Red Army, an event Russia calls the Great Patriotic War, and features the President of Russia as guest of honor.
The first Moscow Victory Day Parade took place on the 24th of June 1945, more than a month after Germany's surrender on the 9th of May. It involved 40,000 Red Army soldiers and 1,850 military vehicles and included a small detachment from the First Polish Army.
The Moscow Victory Day Parade became annual starting in 1995, the 50th anniversary of the Soviet victory and the first Victory Day parade of the newly formed Russian Federation. Before that it had been held only four times, in 1945, 1965-1985 and 1990.
The Moscow Victory Day Parade is held on Red Square in Moscow, with the President and Prime Minister arriving at a grandstand facing Lenin's Mausoleum at 9:55 am Moscow Standard Time. Full rehearsals take place beforehand at a training center in the village of Alabino, in the Moscow Oblast.
Foreign leaders who have attended the Moscow Victory Day Parade include East Germany's Willi Stoph in 1965, Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2016 and 2019, Moldova's Igor Dodon in 2017, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Serbia's Aleksandar Vučić in 2018, and Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon in 2021. Inviting foreign leaders has been a jubilee tradition since 1995.
Yes, the 2020 Moscow Victory Day Parade, marking the 75th anniversary of the victory, was postponed from the 9th of May to the 24th of June because of the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2026, the Kremlin also announced a version of the parade without its usual display of military equipment, citing concerns over Ukrainian attacks.