70th anniversary of the Great Victory

“The peoples of the CIS member countries are going through a very interesting and important period connected with the preparations for the upcoming celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The CIS Council of Heads of State made a relevant decision two years ago. I am pleased to note that the CIS member countries have done a great job to get ready for the celebrations,” Sergei Lebedev said as he took part in a regular session of the council of permanent plenipotentiaries of the CIS member states in statutory and other bodies of the CIS on 14 April.

The session discussed the status of implementation of major events included in the plan of celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The CIS member countries are actively working on the organization of events aimed at preserving the memory of the victims of the war, upkeeping the memorials, monuments, obelisks, and graves of members of the partisan and underground movements and prisoners of Nazi death camps, and searching for the remains of the soldiers and civilians who were killed in the Great Patriotic War.

Sergei Lebedev pointed out that the CIS member states have intensified their efforts to provide additional social protection to people with disabilities and participants of the Great Patriotic War. For example, they carefully examine the living conditions of veterans and those who worked on the home front during the war and provide them with landline telephone service, firewood, medical care, and other services. The countries of the CIS are also creating new themed museum expositions and continuously improving the existing ones.

Members of the CIS council of permanent plenipotentiaries noted that almost all the events are being implemented within the deadlines established in the plan. They promised to provide all-round support to the CIS member states in carrying out this plan.

The participants of the session also talked over the plan of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth of Independent States in 2016. Besides, they reviewed the results of the session of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council that took place in Bishkek on 3 April 2015.