Russia marks Victory Day with a military parade on Red Square in Moscow (26Pics)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and acting Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov watch the Victory Day Parade

Newly-inaugurated Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over the annual Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow.

Two days after Putin's swearing-in, more than 14,000 servicemen marched alongside nuclear-capable missiles to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

Columns of around 100 units of military hardware rolled across the square including Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missiles and the vast Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Putin reinforced Russia's key role in winning World War II and argued that this gave it a "moral right" to stick up for its position in international relations today. "Russia consistently carries out a politics of strengthening security in the world and we have a great moral right to stand up for our positions in a principled and determined way," he said.

"Because it was our country that took on itself the chief onslaught of Nazism and met it with heroic resistance, went through the harshest trials, defined the outcome of the war. We will always be true to your feat," he told veterans.

"And that means we have a future and we will do all that we can to make it peaceful and safe," he said, to three cheers from the forces.

On a chilly overcast morning, many of the medal-decked veterans were wrapped up in raincoats and the cobbles remained slippery from earlier rain, although the skies cleared in time for the start.

The air force confirmed its jets had taken to the skies to drive away rain clouds in what has become usual practice for major events in the Russian capital.

Victory Day is Russia's most important secular holiday. The enormous suffering of World War II, and the Red Army's determination to beat back the Nazi invasion, are cherished elements in Russia's national identity.

The Soviet Union lost an estimated 26 million people in the war, including 8.5 million soldiers.

Among the thousands of spectators along the square were World War II veterans bent with age, their jackets festooned with rows of medals.

"Your courage and ability to love and defend your homeland will never recede into the past and will remain the hallmark of morals, patriotism and sense of civic duty in the eyes of the younger generation," Putin said.