YALTA, April 22. /TASS/. A portrait sculpture to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, was unveiled in the Crimean city of Yalta on Saturday.

In 1945, Roosevelt arrived in Crimea to attend the Yalta (or Crimea) Conference of leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition (the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain). The Yalta Conference took place on February 4-11,1945 in the Black Sea resort city. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made important decisions on Europe’s postwar order during the conference.

Monument a gift to Yalta

The portrait sculpture to Roosevelt was installed on the street named after him, which is also one of the first streets in the city. It accommodated the first governmental office, the customs, in which Russian Tsar Nicholas I signed a decree granting Yalta a status of town. On 31 March 1960, the street was named after Roosevelt and until now it is the only street in post-Soviet republics that bears the name of a US president.

Sevastopol sculptor Konstantin Koshkin created the sculpture to Roosevelt back in the 1960s. For many years, it was kept in Livadia Palace’s depository. Since 2005, the sculpture was displayed at the Bristol Hotel museum. Nevertheless, the bust was never on display for the public until Livadia Palace has given it to the city as a gift. On April 22 Yalta traditionally marks Day of Roosevelt Street.

Crimea ready for new Yalta Conference

Unveiling the monument, Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Permanent Representative to Russia’s President Georgy Muradov said that Crimea is ready to host a new Yalta Conference.

"We should not seek to hold conferences at the end of a war," Muradov said. "We need to hold conferences and enter into peaceful dialogue in times of peace, without bringing it to a head. So naturally, we need to say that we in Yalta are ready for a new Yalta Conference, are ready to bring together leaders of the world’s leading counties so as to reach an agreement about our peaceful and well-deserved future."

"Under this motto and with this in mind, we are unveiling the monument to Roosevelt," he said.

Yalta keeps memory of Roosevelt

The city head, Andrei Rostenko, said at the unveiling ceremony that Yalta keeps the memory of the 32nd US president as "the greatest man."

Crimea remembers Roosevelt for his contribution "to peace, to creation of the United Nations, for his contribution to overthrow of the Hitler coalition and unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected US president in 1933 and stayed in office until his death in 1945, leading his country through Great Depression and World War Two. He was the only US president who was elected four times.