Press Release, 7.05.2019

The delegation of the Yabloko party laid a wreath and flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden in Moscow.

Photo: Alexander Gnezdilov, Grigory Yavlinsky, Boris Misnik, Nikolay Rybakov, Sergei Mitrokhin and Anatoly Golov.

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Party’s Federal Political Committee:

“Victory Day is first and foremost a day of tremendous sorrow for the dead. Our country has lost tens of millions of people. It is a day of remembrance of the price paid by the Soviet people for our freedom, for our dignity, for self-esteem. It imposes a huge responsibility on us to preserve and increase the freedom and independence of our country. ”

Alexander Gnezdilov, Deputy Chairman of the party:

“Today we commemorate those who died for the sake of peace on earth, for the sake of a peaceful sky. In 1945 they made it so that Hitler’s Nazism received a heavy and almost fatal blow. At the same time, we see that fascism in various forms – softer and more concealed – again raises its head in our country and in other European countries today. Again the ideology of discord and intolerance manifests itself. And today, we, as social liberals, as Europeans, have a very big responsibility to win again – so far less difficult than the one our ancestors won in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and in World War II 1939-1945.”

Nikolay Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of the party:

“I was born 30 years after the end of the Second World War, and I remember very well how the veterans always said at meetings in schools: the main thing is that there should never be a war, so that this never happens again. And today the slogan “We can repeat it” is becoming more and more popular [in Russia]. Our task is to do so that the war never repeats.”

The Yabloko party annually takes part in a solemn ceremony in the Alexander Garden. Due to the large number of delegations and official events on Victory Day, the laying of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier takes place a few days before Victory Day of 9 May.

On Victory Day, activists and leaders of Yabloko traditionally come to the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery – the largest military burial in Moscow. On May 9, 2019, Yabloko’s delegation will lay wreaths and flowers to the memorial.