Victory Parade to be held later this year, senate speaker says

Russian Politics & Diplomacy April 16, 2020, 15:41

A new date will be announced within days

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. A military parade on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazism will certainly be held this year. The country’s leadership will pick a date in the near future, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday.

"I can say with certainty and promise to you that a parade on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, our great Victory, will certainly take place this year. It will be grandiose, it will be large-scale, it will be worthy of the heroic accomplishment of the Red Army, our people, the peoples of the Soviet Union and the victory over Nazism. As far as its date is concerned, it will depend on how the coronavirus situation develops," Matviyenko told the media in an online conference.

"I believe that the country’s leadership will make a decision within days. It will be announced," she added.

On April 15, Russia’s organizations of World War II veterans asked the president to move the parade in Moscow from May 9 to a later date, when the coronavirus situation returns to normal. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told TASS the request will be considered.

Matviyenko said that regardless of the date May 9 would certainly be a family holiday in each home, "because there is no family in our country that has not been scorched by the blaze of that war."

She also speculated that the international campaign of remembrance called the Immortal Regiment in the light of the current situation might be held on-line.

"Everything that can be accomplished must be accomplished. But it should be remembered that this year sees the 75th anniversary of the victory and we will have time to pay respects to our dear veterans personally and remember our heroes. We will certainly celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory properly," Matviyenko said.

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