MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry is checking reports a delegation of Russian World War II veterans has not been allowed into the Reichstag, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday.
"I have seen reports on that score," the diplomat said. "What they say is not exactly true, to say the least." At the same time Lukashevich pointed out that "the very instance has aroused emphatic indignation."
"We are trying to clear up all details," he went on to say. "I can promise that the reaction on the merits will follow before long."
Last Saturday more than a hundred delegates and enthusiasts began a car trip from the Poklonnaya Hill war memorial in Moscow on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. On May 2 the motorcade is to arrive in Torgau, Germany, at the site where anti-Hitler coalition allies’ troops shook hands on the River Elbe. As the mission’s spokesman, former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, told TASS by telephone earlier on Friday, the Russian delegate was not allowed into the Reichstag on Friday, although the request had been lodged in advance.
"The original plan was delegations from all of the anti-Hitler coalition countries would meet at the Reichstag. Delegations from the United States, Britain and France were there. We were cordoned off, although our embassy had filed a request in advance. We were told that there had been no such request, which was a rather strange to hear in a country like Germany," Karpov said.
He believes that the Russian embassy must lodge a complaint over the incident.