The message reads, in part:
“Your traditional meetings held ahead of Victory Day are a major consolidating element in the life of people in the CIS countries. These meetings, which bring together prominent public figures, veterans, members of the research and expert communities and creative and youth organisations, have a noble mission of promoting continuity and encouraging the upcoming generation to respect the enduring spiritual and moral values and the heroic pages from the shared history of our peoples, including the courageous struggle of the partisans and resistance fighters during the Great Patriotic War.
It is our duty to protect the truth about heroes and to firmly resist any attempt to falsify historical facts. I am confident that the sacred memory of our victory in May 1945 and the heroism of our fathers and grandfathers, who defended the freedom and independence of our homeland and saved the world from Nazism, will always provide a solid basis for partnership and neighbourly relations between the CIS nations.”