CARACAS, May 13. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Victory in the Great Patriotic War a major international event that neither the collective West nor the Kiev regime could undermine.

"Celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War was a global event <…> and it played a major role as Nazism and fascism are resurfacing today," Maduro said on his Con Maduro+ TV program on Venezolana de Television. According to the Venezuelan leader, Western countries "have been trying to destroy <…> the great truth about heroism that led to the Victory, using a barrage of lies."

Maduro expressed his regret that "some leaders of the collective West went to the world capital of Nazism and fascism, which is run by a pro-Nazi government in Kiev and supports Nazism which destroyed the Ukrainian people and Soviet peoples, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Victory."

The Venezuelan president paid an official visit to Russia to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and was present at the May 9 parade on Red Square. Talks in Moscow between Venezuela and Russia led to the signing of a bilateral strategic partnership and cooperation agreement. In the Russian capital, the Venezuelan leader met with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Also, Maduro visited St. Petersburg where he laid flowers at the Motherland memorial in Piskaryovskoye Cemetery and held talks with St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov. In addition, Maduro toured the Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and Smolny Cathedral.