MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. The Kremlin deems it very important that France remembers the role of the Russian soldiers fighting along with the French troops in France during WWI, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in reply to journalists’ queries on Monday.
He reminded the reporters that about 20,000 troops from the Russian Expeditionary Force fought in France "defending the French people". "France remembers this, we know it and this is what participants in the ceremony in which Russian President [Vladimir Putin] laid flowers at the monument to our Cossacks in Paris brought back to memory," Peskov said. "There were French nationals who spoke about this," he stressed.
Peskov admitted, however, that the scenario of the Paris events to mark the 100th anniversary of the World War I Armistice on November 11, at which no letters from Russian soldiers were quoted, did not go unnoticed in the Kremlin. "Of course, the history of WWI within the context of the fate of our country is very complicated and full of contradictions," he said.
"But it was up to the organizers [of the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile in Paris] to choose the languages to quote memoirs, and we respect this choice," the spokesman said.
"At the same time, we are certainly sure that many in Paris and in France remember the feats the Russian soldiers accomplished in France, defending France," he said.
"The memory lives, which is the main thing, while the decision of the [Paris ceremony] organizers is another story," he said.
President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to Russian soldiers and officers in Paris on Sunday, laying flowers to the monument of the members of the Russian Expeditionary Force, who fought along with the French troops in France during World War I.
Putin paid a visit to Paris to take part in the events marking the 100th anniversary of the World War I Armistice. The relatives of participants of World War I attended the ceremony with the Russian leader. After the event, Putin briefly talked to them.
World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, proved to be one of the largest-scale armed conflicts in history. France and Russia were allies in the war, Russia came to France’s rescue many times. In 1916, the Russian Expeditionary Force was deployed to the Western Front at the request of Russia’s allies.
The war claimed the lives of 18.6 million people. An agreement, which put an end to hostilities, was signed in the railway carriage of Supreme Allied Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch in the Forest of Compiegne, 80 kilometers north of Paris, on November 11, 1918. Since then, France has been celebrating the anniversary of the end of World War I on November 11.