Solemn Mourning Ceremony Took Place at Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery

On the day of the 79^th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi Siege, the solemn mourning ceremony of laying flowers and wreaths took place at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Russian parliamentarians, citizens of the city, government representatives, war veterans, siege survivors, leaders of civil society organizations gathered pay tribute to the memory of the besieged city victims who died during the Great Patriotic War.

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko laid flowers at the Motherland monument. She emphasized that the immortal feat of the citizens and defenders of the city on the Neva forever remained a symbol of courage, resilience and love for the Motherland.

The solemn and mourning ceremony was also attended by Secretary General of the IPA CIS Dmitriy Kobitskiy, Deputy Secretaries General – Plenipotentiary Representatives of the parliaments: Viktor Kogut (Belarus), Igor Mussalimov (Kazakhstan), Nurbek Satvaldiev (Kyrgyzstan), Ion Lipciu (Moldova), Irina Sokolova (Russia), Bakhtovar Safarzoda (Tajikistan), staff members of the Secretariat.

Representatives of the IPA CIS Secretariat paid tribute to the memory of all the war heroes from the former Soviet republics who liberated Leningrad – flowers were laid on the memorial plates.