Combat ships lined the Neva River in St. Petersburg and crowded the harbor of the nearby Kronstadt naval base on July 25 for the parade marking the 325th anniversary of Russia’s navy, the Military-Maritime Fleet (Voyenno-Morskoy Flot – VMF). It was only the sixth such Navy Day spectacle to date. In 2017, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin decided that the annual May 9 Victory Day parade in Red Square in Moscow was not enough to convincingly demonstrate the full might of the Russian Armed Forces.