MOSCOW, April 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a bill on ratification of an inter-governmental agreement between Russia and Serbia on the status of Russian military cemeteries in Serbia into a law, the Kremlin website reports.
Russia and Serbia signed the agreement in Moscow on April 10, 2013 with an aim of creating an international legal basis for ensuring proper care after Russian war graves in Serbia and Serbian military cemeteries in Russia.
The document sets the procedure for granting land allotments for Russian and Serbian military cemeteries as well as exhuming and reburying the remains; and regulates questions of protection and preservation of military cemeteries.
The agreement provides for sharing information on the presence, location and the state of war graves; the sides are to hand over the lists and personal data on perished and dead servicemen buried in the territories of both countries as well as ensure each other’s access to documents linked to the burial places.
The Russian-Serbian inter-governmental agreement also provides for the sides’ interaction in finding places for military graves, in exhumation and reburial of the remains and the provision of expenses on development and maintenance of military cemeteries. Under the agreement, the parties undertake commitments to grant free land allotments to each other for unlimited use to renovate the old cemeteries and create the new ones.
In addition to that, each side is supposed to render assistance to the citizens of the other side, in accordance with the laws of their respective countries, in visiting graves located in the territories of their respective countries with an aim to pay tribute to the memory of perished or dead servicemen.
The agreement’s ratification meets Russia’s interests. It will produce a positive impact on Russian-Serbian cooperation in the field of military memorials. Its implementation will not incur any additional expense from the federal budget.