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Putin thanks France’s Hollande for his words about Soviet Union’s part in WWII

Putin said that “it is very important that in Europe people speak about it"

DEAUVILLE (France), June 06 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to phone his French counterpart Francois Hollande and thank him for the words about the Soviet Union’s landmark contribution to the victory over Nazism.

“I was very pleased to note it and I will later call and thank the French president that in his speech he mentioned the landmark contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory over Nazism,” Putin said at his meeting with Russian World War II veterans on Friday.

Putin said that “it is very important that in Europe people speak about it".

The Russian president thanked his French counterpart "for a clear signal that the world does not forget that the Soviet Union made a landmark contribution during the World War II.” Putin said words of gratitude to veterans as well and expressed the hope to see them at similar celebrations in the years to come.

On Friday France’s Normandy commemorates the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing of allied troops on its beaches to pave the way to victory over Nazi Germany. Putin called the ceremony “talented, spectacular and grandiose.”

A veteran told the Russian head of state a story of his fighting during WWII and how a Frenchman saved his life though he has never seen him afterwards but was eager to meet and thank him. Putin instructed the Russian ambassador to France to help the veteran and organise the inquiries about that man.

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