Putin Lays Wreath at Unknown Soldier Tomb to Commemorate WWII Victims

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday laid a wreath at the eternal flame near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow to commemorate the victims of the Great Patriotic War.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The ceremony took place on June 22 to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Soviet Union during World War II, which was to become known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.

The wreath laid at the tomb in silence had a commemorative inscription that read, "To the unknown soldier from the president of the Russian Federation."

After the Russian president, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko and Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin also laid flowers near the eternal flame.

The ceremony took place at the Alexander Gardens (Aleksandrovsky Sad) located below the Kremlin walls.

The Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) was a crucial part of World War II (1939-1945). It began on June 22, 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Germany signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender in a suburb of Berlin in the late evening of May 8, 1945 (already May 9 according to Moscow time). The Soviet Union lost more than 25 million people in the war.