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78th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany

Putin, CIS leaders lay wreath at Tomb of Unknown Soldier near Kremlin wall

Presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and Armenian Prime Minister gathered together to attend the Victory Day festivities in Moscow on May 9

Presidents Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, and Serdar Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan Alexei Maishev/POOL/TASS

Presidents Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, and Serdar Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan

© Alexei Maishev/POOL/TASS

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and CIS leaders laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin wall after the Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday.

Presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan Alexander Lukashenko, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Sadyr Japarov, Emomali Rahmon, Serdar Berdimuhamedow and Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gathered together to attend the Victory Day festivities in Moscow on May 9. Together with Russian President Putin, they watched the Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square and then came to the Kremlin’s Alexander Garden to attend the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

To the tune of the Russian anthem, they bowed their heads to commemorate those fallen during the Soviet Union's 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a national WWII military memorial of honor. The remains of the Unknown Soldier were transferred from a mass grave near Moscow and re-buried in a solemn ceremony in the Alexander Garden at the Kremlin wall in 1966. The memorial integrating the Eternal Flame and an alley of hero cities as its key elements was opened the next year. The memorial was subsequently expanded with a monument to Russian cities of military glory. The Guard of Honor was posted here in 1997 and is now Post No. 1.

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