The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, on Thursday led the tributes for the eightieth anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, in which Soviet troops defeated Nazi Germany, while the Kremlin denies the alleged plans to retake the old toponymy.
Putin visited the memorial in memory of the fallen in Volgograd, where he left an offering and observed a minute of silence. He also visited the grave of Marshal Vasily Chuikov, considered a hero of the Soviet era, in a series of symbolically charged events, reports TASS.
Russia commemorates the anniversary of the battle in a context marked by another conflict, the one in Ukraine, whose first year will be marked precisely this month. Putin gave the order to invade the neighboring country on February 24, 2022, giving rise to an offensive that Moscow shows no signs of interrupting in the short term.
Volgograd has also been in the news in recent days for a possible name change back to Stalingrad. The Kremlin has ruled out this possibility in recent days, again on Thursday through the mouth of its main spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov has denied that there are discussions on the matter and has called to be «very careful» about this type of issues, alluding to surveys that show that the majority of the neighbors of the area would be against recovering the disappeared toponymy, according to Interfax.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
