The rally started Saturday in Moscow: about four dozen Night Wolves members are planning to visit Minsk, Brest, Wroclaw, Brno, Bratislava, Vienna, Munich and Prague and finish the journey on May 9 in Berlin, laying flowers at the monument for Soviet soldiers in Treptow Park.
"If we give up on this [ride], we should as well give up on everything — May 9 [Victory Day], the graves [of the fallen Soviet soldiers in WWII], on monuments, on memory, on our history, on all our values – we will lie in a coffin and die immediately. This would not happen,” the leader of the Russian bikers club said.
The bikers do not intend to change the route of their Victory rally despite the entry ban imposed by Warsaw, Zaldostanov said.
"We will not abandon our plan, we will not change the route. If we are not allowed [to enter Poland] all together, we will ride one by one, from different places," he said.
According to Zaldostanov, the participants of the motorcycle rally are to reach Poland in about two days, on April 27.
The head of the Night Wolves also noted that "Polish politicians live their lives, and ordinary people live another life, we are pleased that the Poles in general support us."
As an example, Zaldostanov cited the fact that recently the 30,000 Polish bikers had adopted a resolution in support of the Night Wolves’ Victory Day ride to ensure that the Russian bikers receive "security and hospitality" in Poland.
