Former MP George Galloway appears in Moscow for Putin's Victory Day celebrations days after collecting award names after Hamas fighter in Tehran
The leader of the hard-left Workers Party of Britain made an appearance in Moscow as Russia 's Vladimir Putin celebrated Victory Day with a huge military parade.
George Galloway - who previously served as MP for Glasgow Hillhead, Glasgow Kelvin and then Bethnal Green and Bow - travelled to Russia this week to attend Putin's pageant through the city's Red Square on Friday.
Taking to X to share snaps of himself in Moscow, Galloway called the Victory Day Celebrations 'moving, emotional, inspiring, humbling.'
Pictures posted by the politician show him and his fourth wife Putri Gayatri Pertiwi - who is 30 years his junior - posing for the camera on Red Square.
At the event, which was attended by more than 20 world leaders, the Russian dictator showed off his tanks, missiles and troops in an impressive display.
One of the Russian leader's most high-profile guests was China 's President Xi Jingping, who sat next to Putin during the procession.
Galloway's visit to Russia on Friday comes after he travelled to Tehran this week to collect an award in honour of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed last year in an Israeli strike in the Iranian capital.
He was given the Martyr Ismail Haniyeh award at a media festival held in Tehran in recognition of his 'outspoken defence of Palestine.'
Having previously praised the assassinated Hamas leader as a 'martyr,' Galloway said in a speech said he was 'honoured' to receive the award, and also bragged about having Haniyeh's passport in his possession.
'I actually hold in my safe the passport of the because when we arrived with one of our convoys to break the siege on Gaza [in 2009], he had promised me a Palestinian passport but they had run out of Palestinian passports. So he gave me his own personal passport and it is one of my most treasured possessions,' the British politician boasted.
He went on to thank Iran for 'their steadfastness in support for the Palestinian people.'
'The truth is when Palestine is finally free, Iran will be able to take its place in the panoply of heroes who made it possible.'
The timing of Galloway's visit to Iran came as tensions between the UK and Tehran heightened last week following the arrest of four Iranian nationals over an alleged plot to attack Israel's London embassy.
Victory Day, which Russia marks on May 9, is the country's most important secular holiday.
The parade and other festivities underline Moscow's efforts to project its global power and cement the alliances it has forged while seeking a counterbalance to the West amid the conflict in Ukraine that is grinding through a fourth year.
World War II is a rare event in the nation's divisive history under Communist rule that is revered by all political groups, and the Kremlin has used that sentiment to encourage national pride and underline Russia's position as a global power.
The parade featured over 11,500 troops and more than 180 military vehicles, including tanks, armored infantry vehicles and artillery used on the battlefield in Ukraine
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what it calls the Great Patriotic War in 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche.
The timing of Galloway's visit to Russia comes as Sir Keir Starmer, along with the leaders of France, Germany and Poland, travelled to Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of unity after Putin's Victory Day parade.
Britain has been highly critical of Russia since it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
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