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Mihai Ghimpu, the Acting President of Moldova, stated in late April 2010, after previously accepting an invitation from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to attend the celebrations, that he would not be attending, claiming "I have no ties with Moscow. World leaders present at the 2010 Victory Day Parade A poll run by the Levada Center saw 20 percent of respondents disapproving of the presence of foreign troops, with 8 percent being strongly opposed. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation held a May Day rally in Moscow, at which several thousand protesters used the rally to decry the inclusion of troops from NATO countries in the parade. The inclusion of foreign troops in the parade was not without controversy. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the inclusion of foreign troops in the parade recognition of their "common victory" in World War II. The combined Russian and foreign massed bands performed Slavsya, Ode to Joy and Den Pobedy at the conclusion of the parade.
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France was represented by pilots and aircraft from the Normandie-Niemen Air Regiment.
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The United States was represented by the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment and the Naval Forces Europe Band. The United Kingdom was represented by a detachment of 76 soldiers from Number 2 Company, 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, the Central Band of the Royal Air Force and the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment. Poland was represented by the Representative Battalion of the Polish Armed Forces. Upon request from the government of Turkmenistan, the contingent from Turkmenistan was led by an officer riding on horseback, with the horse (which was a descendant of the horse used during the 1945 parade) being flown into Moscow from Ashgabat. Battalions from the CIS included Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine among them. The 2010 Parade marked the first time that foreign and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) soldiers joined Russian forces on Red Square for the parade. Foreign military įoreign troops march on Red Square as part of Victory Day celebrations for the first time. The mobile ICBM Topol-M missile, that first appeared at the 2009 parade, was shown here again for the second consecutive year. Also taking part for the first time were the Yakovlev Yak-130 jet trainer aircraft and the Mil Mi-26 heavy helicopter. Twenty aviation units of the Russian Air Force took part in the parade, which saw the Ilyushin Il-76, Ilyushin Il-78, Antonov An-124, Sukhoi Su-27, Ilyushin Il-80, Beriev A-50, Tupolev Tu-22M, Sukhoi Su-25, Mikoyan MiG-29, Mikoyan MiG-31, Tupolev Tu-95 and Tupolev Tu-160 performing flypasts. The 9 May Victory Day Parade in Moscow involved more than 10,000 troops marching, 160 military vehicles and 127 military aircraft, making it the largest parade to be held since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.