 |
|
Russian soldiers carry a replica of the
Victory Banner, a red hammer-and-sickle banner unfurled atop the Reichstag
in Berlin after the building was seized by Soviet troops a week before the
Nazi surrender, during a military parade marking Victory Day in Red Square
in Moscow, Wednesday, May 9, 2007. (Photo: CCTV.com/Agency)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, May 10 -- Russia has marked the anniversary of the defeat of
Nazi Germany in World War II with a military parade at Red Square in Moscow.
Celebrations were also held in other cities across the country. But
relations are strained over neighboring Estonia's removal of a war-time monument
in Tallinn.
Victory Day is one of the most cherished dates in the Russian calendar.
An estimated 27 million people died during the Great Patriotic War.
On Wednesday, several thousand troops in parade uniforms stepped through
Red Square.
President Vladimir Putin hailed Victory Day as a holiday of huge moral
importance and unifying power. He also honored the Western allies' contribution
to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
And the Russian leader had a harsh, thinly veiled reference to Estonia's
relocating a Soviet-era war monument.
Putin said, "Those who are trying today to belittle this invaluable
experience, who are desecrating monuments to war heroes, they are in fact
humiliating their own nation and sowing discord and new mistrust between states
and people."
Tensions have been running high since Estonia announced the removal of the
bronze statue of a Red Army soldier to a new site.
It has sparked conflict between police and mainly ethnic Russian
demonstrators, in which one person was killed and hundreds arrested.
Russia's ambassador to Estonia Nikolai Uspensky also refused to attend a
Tuesday event organized by the Estonian government, during which the cabinet
ministers laid flowers at the relocated statue. The gesture was meant to help
mend the relations between ethnic Estonians and Russian-speakers.
In a statement on Wednesday,Uspensky reiterated Moscow's objections to the
relocation of the statue.
(Source: CCTV.com)
Related:
Russian ambassador to Estonia lays
flowers at disputed statute
TALLINN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian ambassador to
Estonia Nikolai Uspensky on Wednesday laid flowers at a disputed Soviet-era
statute for ceremony of the end of the Second World War.
"May 9 is our celebration, it's a holiday celebrated
in Russia,and I myself feel huge satisfaction that our holiday, May 9, is
remembered in Estonia," Uspensky said after a solemn remembrance before the
Bronze Soldier statute. Full story [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
|
Print
