A total 57 countries and international organizations are represented at the Moscow galas by heads of state, prime ministers and organization leaders. This gathering is of principled importance, said Russia's President as he expressed heartfelt gratitude to all guests who were sharing the jubilance with us Russians.
The President warned against illusions of the ideas of fascism and racial superiority eradicated. "Similar ideas are at the root of extremism and terrorism. The contemporary world has come face-to-face with them, and they are no less merciless than Nazism," he emphasized.
The President is sure the world has every prerequisite to fight that evil-there is practical experience of teamwork, and a realization that new dangers are to be warded off through such teamwork,
"The Victory of 1945 extolled the precious value of life. It called to sincere respect for the personality and for human rights. The Victory opened the road to a triumph of humanist ideals, and made it possible for nations to engage in a civilized dialogue, and for countries to peacefully cooperate," said the President.
The Kremlin reception gathered Great Patriotic War veterans and leaders of foreign delegations. As it was going on, President Putin awarded 60th Victory Anniversary jubilee medals to certain present-day and former heads of state, who took part in World War II.
President Karolos Papoulias of Greece was in the Resistance as a boy of fourteen. President Alfred Moisiu of Albania stood at the cradle of youth guerrilla units. President Stipe Mesic of Croatia was also among WWII fighters. General Wojciech Jaruzelski, once Poland's President, was in command of a unit that took part in liberating Warsaw. Glavkos Clerides, former President of Cyprus, was a war pilot. Michael I Hohenzollern, former King of Romania, is now the only surviving winner of the order of Victory, supreme Soviet martial award. He won it for a brave move of August 1944-he ordered military dictator Antonescu arrested, and got his country out of the Axis and warfare.
