Myanmar’s junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, is attending Moscow’s World War II Victory Day parade in his second Russian visit this year.
While the March visit aimed to boost economic cooperation, this trip is focused on deepening military ties with the junta’s chief of the general staff, General Kyaw Swar Lin, and defense minister General Maung Maung Aye, joining the delegation.
Min Aung Hlaing on Wednesday met Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, attended a formal dinner with President Vladimir Putin and watched a ballet.
Maung Maung Aye laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow and met Russia’s deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, to discuss military technology and training cooperation.
Russia supplies fighter jets, attack helicopters, tanks and artillery to the regime and reportedly buys mines and other weapons for use in Ukraine.
Maung Maung Aye and Kyaw Swar Lin have been leading junta efforts to boost military cooperation with Russia. Maung Maung Aye visited Russia in 2023 while chief of the general staff and Kyaw Swar Lin visited Moscow last year, while he was quartermaster-general.
In March, Min Aung Hlaing was accompanied by Nyo Saw, who controls the military’s Myanmar Economic Corporation, investment minister Dr Kan Zaw and numerous junta-allied tycoons, focusing on economic cooperation.
Min Aung Hlaing discussed security cooperation with Russian Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu in March. Russia has reportedly helped the regime with drone operations in Rakhine and Kachin states and is also involved in battles elsewhere.
Khin Yi, chairman of the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, requested Moscow’s intervention in Myanmar’s civil war during an interview with Kremlin mouthpiece Sputnik in July last year.
He called on Russia to acknowledge “what is happening as terrorism, but not internal political squabbles”. “If you recognize this as terrorism, then your departments and agencies that are engaged in the fight against terrorism can join us and together achieve our goals,” Khin Yi was quoted saying by Sputnik.
Despite destruction in Naypyitaw caused by the March 28 earthquake, Russia says it will proceed with plans to build a nuclear power plant near the capital.
While Russia and the junta claim the nuclear project will only be used to generate electricity, both domestic and international observers warn it could have military applications.
No work has started on the project.
