On the 81st anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade during the Great Patriotic War, commemorative events are taking place in St. Petersburg.
According to tradition, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Piskaryevskoye Memorial Cemetery to pay tribute to the residents and defenders of Leningrad who died during the blockade.
The staff of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Secretariat also took part in the solemn and mourning ceremony and laid a wreath and flowers at the foot of the Motherland Monument.
As a reminder, Leningrad was able to withstand an almost 900-day siege. The siege by Nazi Germany lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944.