As Russia celebrates its 80-year-old victory over Nazi Germany, Putin wants the world to see that despite the new conflict in Europe, he still has friends in high places.

Victory Day, celebrated on May 9, is Russia’s most important secular holiday, reflecting its wartime sacrifice. But it's also used by the Kremlin to bolster patriotism and regain the superpower prestige it lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

President Vladimir Putin noted that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would discuss bilateral and global issues at their summit in Moscow, as well as Russia’s supply of oil and gas to China, and cooperation within BRICS — the bloc of developing economies that initially included Brazil,