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Russia to Guard Its Military Burial Sites Abroad
The Russian presidential administration has drafted a decree to protect military burial places abroad, the Defense Ministry said late last week. $1 million is to be spent annually to preserve Russian military burial sites worldwide, mostly in Eastern Europe, according to the bill which is to be signed this month. The initiative appeared amid the conflict with Estoniam authorities over the removal of a Soviet military monument from Tallinn’s central square. The bill aims to show to the West that Russia won’t allow similar situations to happen in future, experts say.
The bill allocates funds to create seven Russian missions abroad to preserve military burial sites. The project will embrace 14 countries where 95 percent of all overseas Soviet military graves found home in the Second World War. About 9 million Soviet soldiers are buried abroad, according to the Defense Ministry. One Russian center is to open in China, while the other six are to be located in Eastern and Central Europe. As much as $1 million is to be earmarked annually to run the agencies.
The agencies will be searching for burial places, taking stock of them and assist identifying efforts, according to Alexander Kirilin, head of the Military Memorial Center at the Russian Military Forces. Russia is going to open offices in Germany with its highest number of Soviet graves and in “problem countries” where anti-Russian sentiment is high, Mr. Kirilin said, referring to Poland, Hungary and Baltic states.
The document’s publication has been evidently sped up by recent developments in Estonia. But Russian officials decline to view it as part of a political campaign. Mikhail Margelov, head of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee, says the bill outlines only one direction of Russia’s work with historic burial sites. Alexey Sigutkin, deputy head of the Duma Defense Committee, is of the same opinion: “This proves a consistent policy of Russian officials. We ought to bury soldiers who have not been laid to rest.”
Duma Deputy Konstantin Zatulin believes that the presidential decree is a sign of political will. “We have heard different statements from the Foreign Ministry”, but the president has not commented on the issue, he said in an interview with Kommersant. “The presidential decree is a sort of compensation for it.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 07, 2007
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