MOSCOW, May 5 /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has congratulated veterans on the approaching Victory Day (marked on May 9), a holiday, which, he said, makes the country stronger. He noted that the task of Russian citizens was to do everything within their power to make their country strong and unified.
"Our task, I mean the task of all generations of citizens; the task of the country’s leadership and all political forces that are currently involved in decision-making to make their country strong and unified. Our country is so vast and complicated that we can exist only as a single people. Otherwise, we are going to fall apart. Regrettably, we know from our own experience what numerous problems and suffering may be inflicted when a country disintegrates," Medvedev told the veterans of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) whom he met at the Konkovo holiday home.
The prime minister noted that all the people who had gathered at the table were mature people of considerable age. "I want to tell you that you managed to withstand the hardships, win in the years of the Great Patriotic War and live to a long and mature age because you were strong inside and you understood what you did and why you did that both when you defended our country during the Great Patriotic War and later when you worked hard to rebuild the country," the Russian prime minister said.
Medvedev expressed the hope that Russian youth would follow the example of the war veterans who served their homeland with utter devotion.