Press Release, 9.05.2023

On the 78th anniversary of the Victory in the Second World War, leaders and members of the Yabloko party visited the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery in Moscow, where more than 10,000 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army are buried, and laid flowers at the memorial and the graves of the French pilots of the Normandie-Niemen fighter squadron at the Vvedensky cemetery. The veteran of the Second World War and Yabloko member Sofya Korchikova, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee Grigory Yavlinsky, Deputy Chairman of the party Sergei Ivanenko, members of the Yabloko Political Committee Alexei Arbatov, Alexander Gnezdilov and Sergei Mitrokhin, members of the Federal Bureau Kirill Goncharov and Grigory Grishin participated in the memorial actions.

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov believes that 9 May is now not only Victory Day, but also a day when everyone should ask himself a question: what have I personally done to restore peace, so that people do not die, and so that letters about of the death of a loved one at war never come to families again?

“I really hope that on Victory Day we will not only remember veterans, home front workers, those who died in the Nazi concentration camps and besieged Leningrad. We will think about today as well. About what each of us must do in order to restore peace,” Nikolai Rybakov said at the memorial event on the 78th anniversary of the Victory.

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee Grigory Yavlinsky believes that now, on 9 May, 2023, it is especially important to remember that the highest meaning of Victory Day, our responsibility to the victims and heroes of that terrible war is to build a world for children and grandchildren in which there will be no chances for a monstrous catastrophe like [the WW2] in the 20th century. To do this, we need to understand and remember well the reasons that led to that war, so that to resist any new war at the best of our abilities, do everything so that no more people die. Only then will Victory Day be an unconditional celebration of the triumph of true freedom and the continuation of life.

“Eternal memory. Endless gratitude. Huge respect. We bow down for everything they have done for us. And what we are doing now is a question to us,” Yavlinsky said at the graves of Red Army soldiers at the Preobrazhensky cemetery.

Photo: Graves of fighters of the Normandie-Niemen squadron at the Vvedensky cemetery

Photo: Graves of fighters of the Normandie-Niemen squadron at the Vvedensky cemetery

Also today, members and activists of Yabloko cleaned up the area at the mass grave in the Lotoshinsky district of the Moscow region.

Yesterday, on 8 May, the delegation of the St. Petersburg Yabloko paid tribute to the memory of the victims of the Siege of Leningrad and the Second World War at the Piskarevsky cemetery. Together with Nikolai Rybakov, flowers were laid by Alexander Shishlov, head of the regional Yabloko branch and Coordinator of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee, and members of the party.

Commemorative actions with the participation of Yabloko members and supporters were also held in other regions of Russia.

More photos: https://www.yabloko.ru/cat-news/2023/05/09