French naval visit at Victory Day
The crew of a French naval vessel will take part in the Victory Day parade in Murmansk on May 9. The Russian Government has allocated a total of one billion rubles for the celebrations nationwide.
Russian and French authorities have agreed on French participation in the parade in Murmansk to commemorate the 65th anniversary for the victory in World War II, web site Murman.ru writes.
Russian and France have been negotiating on purchase of the French-made helicopter carrier “Mistral” and a Russian license on the construction of the vessels, as BarentsObserver reported.
The military parade in Murmansk takes place on the Lenin Avenue in the center of town. The military units then take the lead in a procession to the Alesha war memorial assembly. Thousands of people normally take part in this nearly five kilometers long walk.
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The Russian Government has allocated one billion rubles for this year’s celebration, Gazeta Nedelya writes. Parades will be taking place at the same time in all Russian Hero Cities. The largest parade will be on the Red Square, where military units from the USA, Great Britain and France will participate. The air show above the Red Square will be the largest ever with some 130 aircrafts, web site Utro.ru writes.
On the Kola Peninsula, the biggest official ceremony marking May 9th takes at the Litsa front, some 80 kilometers west of Murmansk. This was the front where the Red Army’s soldiers was fighting for three years from 1941 to 1944 and avoided Hitler in capturing Murmansk with its important supply harbor.
