The parade is an annual event since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 but it has gained prominence during President Vladimir Putin's two decades in power as a display of military muscle.
Though most wouldn’t recognise his name today, President Nursultan Nazarbayev's predecessor was known by almost everyone in the Central Asian country 30 years ago.
Both states are part of the European Union and have tried to maintain neutrality - until Russia’s recent offensive in Ukraine.
As Russia faces unprecedented sanctions, the oil and gas sector continues to provide the country with stable income. But few people know of the man who discovered the largest deposits of black gold in Siberia in 1961.
The strategic region has no borders with Russia, but Moscow has been able to keep it, even allegedly deploying nuclear weapons there.
Joe Biden and other NATO leaders previously ruled out the possibility of the Western alliance's direct involvement in the conflict. But as Russia mounts pressure on Kiev, some argue that NATO's stance may change.
Putin increasingly sounds like a defender of Russian ethnic nationalism guided by Orthodox Christianity. But what are his ideological roots, and how did he come to this point?
The victorious Western alliance saw Russia as a crumbled post-Soviet state and did not make enough efforts to let Moscow join the power bloc.
Belarus, which means White Russia, is a pro-Moscow Eastern European state under autocratic leadership, bordering both Ukraine and Russia.
According to the Western-sponsored Budapest Memorandum, Kiev gave up its nuclear weapons in return for the Russian pledge of respect for Ukrainian territorial integrity.
The threats exchanged by Russia and US-led NATO have taken a dangerous turn as Moscow announces a nuclear alert. It is the second time the world has worried about nuclear war.
China has usually chosen to be a lowkey player in different conflicts. In the Ukraine-Russia conflict, however, Beijing is walking a diplomatic tightrope.
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