MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. The United Kingdom respects memory of the alliance between Moscow and London in the Second World War, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrei Kelin said Thursday in an open interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.
"The memory is strong not only about the war itself but also about the sacrifices the British made. At the same time, the memory still lives on about our cooperation as allies in those times," Kelin noted.
According to the diplomat, the UK is respectful about preserving history. "I don’t see any attempts to erode history or attempts to rewrite it. They are very respectful about this here, just as about any other war that the UK took part in," the ambassador stressed.
Speaking about the events held in the country to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the WW2 victory, the Russian envoy stressed that all of them were positive and acknowledged that he had been stunned by the minute of silence observed across the country when everything came to a standstill.
"We planned many events to mark this, they had to be downsized, of course. We planned to lay wreaths with a lot of people, a few thousands of people, in presence of Princess Anne to the monument of fallen Soviet soldiers. As a result, we laid the wreaths with our colleagues from the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States — TASS], having agreed this with local authorities and the foreign office. Moreover, Princess Anne sent a very warm letter to us," Kelin added.