CSTO PA representatives honoured the memory of citizens and defenders of the besieged Leningrad

Today, on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege, representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization together with their colleagues from the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly took part in the mourning ceremony of laying wreaths at the Motherland monument at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery.
Flowers were also laid at the memorial stones in honour of soldiers from former Soviet republics, now independent states – members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization who died defending Leningrad and breaching the encirclement of the blockade.
As you may recall, as a result of Operation January Thunder, by January 27, 1944, forces of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic Fronts completely lifted the Leningrad siege that had been breached on January 18, 1943.
The city celebrated it with a thunderous artillery salute. The liberation of Leningrad from the blockade was celebrated by the entire country, and Moscow, which saluted each of the military victories, this time ceded to Leningrad the honourable right to salute. Moscow residents listened to the volleys of the Neva salute on the radio and cheered along with the people of Leningrad. TASS reported, “The capital of our homeland, Moscow, saluting in honour of the liberation of more and more cities, yesterday listened with particular excitement to the salute that this time rang out from Leningrad.”

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