Russia's Ambassador to Germany Says Victory Day Events to Be Held With Dignity

TORGAU /Germany/, April 25. /TASS/. Russia's ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev has stated that all commemorative events in Germany marking Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War will be held with dignity; not all is lost in bilateral relations.

"On May 8 and 9, we are holding all scheduled events, and I sincerely hope they will all be held with dignity and solemnity. We have not yet seen or heard of any restrictions," Nechayev told reporters in Torgau (Saxony), where commemorative events were held to mark the 81st anniversary of the link-up of Soviet and American troops on the Elbe.

Nechayev expressed gratitude to the German public, "who came in such large numbers to the monument in Torgau today."

"This suggests that not all is lost in our bilateral relations, as they say, because we have many friends in Germany who understand both our interests and our concerns. We are bound by shared fond memories of our common experiences, and I hope this will be the basis for normalizing our prospects," the Russian ambassador stated.

The way he sees it, Russia's relations with Saxony have generally always developed very well.

"We, Saxony, Dresden, Leipzig, and other cities have many sister cities in Russia. We, for our part, have not destroyed any of these sister city partnerships," Nechayev noted.

These, he noted, "were very close, very close, as indeed were ours with all of Germany, with which we have established a unique framework for bilateral cooperation."