23.02.2016.
Laying wreaths on the occasion of the Defender of the Fatherland Day
National Day of the Russian Federation, the Defender of the Fatherland Day, was marked by laying flowers at the Memorial Cemetery to the Liberators of Belgrade and at the Monument to the Soviet war veterans on Avala.At the Memorial Cemetery of the Liberators of Belgrade, wreaths were laid by the President of the City Council Nikola Nikodijevic, Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Alexander Chepurin, delegation of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, led by Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces General Ljubisa Dikovic, as well as representatives of the embassies of Belarus and Azerbaijan in Belgrade.
President of the City Council said that today's Russian holiday is an opportunity for all to remember the people who gave their lives for the liberation of Belgrade in the Second World War, especially all the soldiers of the Red Army.
"Fascism, the greatest plague of the 20th century, had neither nationality nor religion. This is the place where soldiers of various nationalities who fought together against fascism lie, and our duty is to convey the memories to future generations, especially for something like that never to happen again", Nikodijevic said.
Laying flowers on the Defender of the Fatherland Day is paying tribute both to soldiers and their families. In Russia, on the Defender of the Fatherland Day numerous manifestations are held.Memorial Cemetery to the liberators of Belgrade was built in 1954 in Belgrade and there rest in peace the Yugoslav and Soviet soldiers killed in combat for the liberation of Belgrade in 1944.
The Monument to the Soviet war veterans on Avala was erected in 1965 in memory of the members of the high Soviet military delegation that perished in a plane crash on Avala in 1964, when their plane hit the top of that mountain.
