MODILEV, September 7. /TASS/. Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus are sparing no effort to defend their countries’ sovereignty, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, said.
Volodin, who arrived in Belarus’ Mogilev on a working visit, attended a plenary session of the Youth Forum of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
"The heads of state - Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko - have done their utmost to defend the sovereignty of our countries, so that we could plan our future by ourselves," he told the forum’s plenary session.
He noted that a nation’s identity rests on history, culture, language, and religion. "Our leaders have done everything they could for us to preserve our identity," he stressed.
According to the senior Russian lawmaker, Russia and Belarus are addressing common tasks within their Union State. "Our today’s conversation focuses on defending sovereignty, independence, and our citizens. This is a conversation about our grandfathers, our fathers, our ancestors. About their feat," he noted, adding that during World War II, the former Soviet Union lost 27 million people. "The war affected each and every family, all of us," he said, recalling that the war claimed the lives of each fifth resident of Belarus.
The two countries’ peoples are working together to defend "this period in history when our grandfathers fought shoulder by shoulder." "This strengthens our relations, brings up closer together," he added.