NOVO-OGARYOVO, February 13. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has welcomed the idea of enshrining Russia’s status of a winner in World War II in the Constitution. He was speaking at a meeting with the working group for drafting proposals for amendments to the Constitution.

An initiative to this effect was proposed by the chairman of the Federation Council’s temporary commission for information policies and cooperation with the mass media Alexei Pushkov. He recalled that in the constitutions of many countries "the preamble is used for proclaiming many basic values and benchmarks of the country and the nation."

"I believe it is important to have Russia’s status of a winner in World War II enshrined in the preamble," he suggested.

"It is worth giving thought to whether this should be mentioned in the Constitution, and if yes, where this should be done. It is a good idea, of course," he said.

He recalled that the Nazis had the intention of exterminating the population of the Soviet Union and the current generation should not forget this.

"In the archive documents, including Nazi documents, the Hitlerites’ aims and intentions regarding Russia were formulated quite clearly: a small share of the able-bodied population was to be preserved as slave labor, while all others, redundant ones, were to be exiled beyond the Urals and to the North where they would be doomed for extinction. The elimination of the ethnos as such was the real aim. None of us would have been living today. We should never forget this, and for this reason we will always stay grateful to those who attained that victory for us," Putin said.

In July 2019, Putin signed a decree to declare 2020 as Year of Remembrance and Glory in the honor of the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The prime minister approved a 116-item plan for festive events. Apart from a parade, firework display, visits of foreign guests, Immortal Regiment procession and other events in Moscow, there will be the unveiling of a Soviet Soldier Memorial in Rzhev (the Tver Region), creation of an Alley of Heroes on Malakhov Hill, the opening of an updated exposition of the museum The Battle of Leningrad in Vsevolzhsk (in the Leningrad Region), and national contests and forums.