International Relay Race along CIS borders Victory-70

In tribute to the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War the border troops of the CIS member states are carrying out a big international relay race project spanning nine states. The relay started simultaneously in Brest and Murmansk on 2 February.

Veterans, honorary border guards of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan gathered in the legendary Brest Fortress. The start to the relay was given by Chairman of the Belarus State Border Troops Committee Colonel General Leonid Maltsev, Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Konysbek Zhusupbekov, and Chairman of the coordinating service of the Council of Commanders of Border Troops of the CIS member states Colonel General Alexander Manilov.

At frontier posts and border control departments the relay participants meet with youth and veterans, hold rallies, military-patriotic events in memory of the fallen guards.

The relay race symbols have been taken to Minsk, to Victory Monument, Grodno, Border Guards Memorial, and to Vitebsk. The Belarusian border guards handed over the baton to the Russian colleagues at the Mound of Friendship at the junction of the borders of Belarus, Russia and Latvia on 18 February. The relay race which is 60,000km long will finish on 28 May, the Border Guards Day, at Poklonnaya Gora Memorial in Moscow.