I rather agree with Ramil that with the decrease of living veteran's number the meaning of the Victory Day in Russia is becoming more pompous , it was their Victory and it's their holiday first of all. Both my grandfathers, who were completely civilian people before the war (one was school teacher and the other was mining engineer) went to the front as volunteers in 1941. Luckily for me (otherwise my parents wouldn't been born) they survived this horrible war but I had an opportunity to talk with only one of them, the other one died rather early (in his early fourties, my mother was only eleven then ), because his health had been heavily damaged during the war. So, for me it's a very important holiday, but I'm afraid that for the younger generation it's just another day-off.
I do not mind the military parade at all, btw. Actually I rather like this tradition, but the whole celebration imho should be less pompous with paying more respect to veterans and with less modern politicans' PR.