Russia held a massive World War II memorial parade in Moscow despite its coronavirus outbreak. Veterans spent 14 days in quarantine to sit with Putin.

• Russia celebrated its biggest public holiday, Victory Day, with a massive military parade on Wednesday.
• The event had been postponed from May but still went ahead in spite of the country's COVID-19 outbreak.
• World War II veterans, most of whom are in their 90s, had to quarantine for two weeks so they could sit next to President Vladimir Putin during the parade.
• The parade came a week before a scheduled nationwide vote for constitutional amendments that would allow Putin to extend his term to 2036.

Russia pushed ahead with a massive Victory Day parade on Wednesday even with the country's coronavirus cases continuing to mount.

As the country surpassed 600,000 total infections, thousands of military personnel marched on Moscow's Red Square to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II.

Victory Day is considered the country's biggest public holiday. It was initially supposed to be held May 9 but was pushed back because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Russia recorded 7,425 new cases and 153 news deaths on Tuesday — the day before the parade — bringing the total number of infections above 608,000, according to Worldometer.

Despite the increasing infections, the country still went ahead with the large-scale celebration.

It featured about 13,000 military personnel, 234 armored vehicles, and 75 aircraft performing flyovers, according to the BBC.

Weeks of planning went into preparing the event: Military units taking part had to enter quarantine while they were rehearsing so they could avoid contact with anyone not involved in the ceremony.

Attending World War II veterans, most of them in their 90s, also had to quarantine for two weeks so they could sit with President Vladimir Putin at the ceremony.

"They are in wonderful conditions there," a Kremlin spokesman said of the sanitariums outside Moscow where the veterans were kept, according to The Guardian.

It is clear that Russian officials are taking great measures to shield Putin from the coronavirus. His official residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, just outside Moscow, has a special disinfection tunnel people must walk through before meeting him.

The parade came a week before a scheduled nationwide vote in which Putin hopes to receive public backing for constitutional amendments that would allow him to stay at the Kremlin beyond 2024 — the year his term expires.

If Putin wins the July 1 vote, his term could be extended to 2036. Voting will be done online and was set to begin less than 24 hours after the parade.

Putin is known for organizing massive, over-the-top stunts to portray himself as a strongman and drum up support.

Moscow began lifting some lockdown restrictions on June 8, but its mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, remains cautious.

Earlier this week, he asked spectators to avoid crowding the street, urging them to watch the parade from home instead.

"It's better to watch it on television," he said, according to The Guardian. "There shouldn't be any crowds, there shouldn't be spectators there."

Other Russian cities — including "hero cities" that saw the heaviest fighting during the war — also held military parades to celebrate Victory Day on Wednesday.