BOBBIE BATTISTA, CNN ANCHOR: Russia turned with joy today to the glories of its past. The celebrations in Red Square officially marked the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.</s>EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Russians really pulled out all the stops. They had this incredible fly-over display, and they also had all of the allied leaders coming in to watch this spectacular parade of military hardware. And sitting there, of course, was Boris Yeltsin, who also -- this was very symbolic of the fact that Russia had now been accepted fully into this club of Europeans and into the club of the industrialized countries. It was definitely a show of international unity. And for Russians, it was a sense of restored pride. They had fallen in recent years from the role of superpower, they felt, to a country where many people were now living in poverty. And for Russians, this was very, very difficult, because here they felt that they had succeeded in throwing off the yoke of communism, but had they really succeeded being accepted as a democratic country? And for all of these democratic leaders to come to Russia and to sit there and watch this spectacular display of military and of people marching in these parades, for Russians, this was something that they could be proud of, and that they felt that they were being accepted into the international community more fully.
CNN 20: 50th Anniversary of the End of WW II, May 9, 1995