VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Mr Putin saw six competing designs exhibited for public evaluation at the Martial Glory Hall of the Great Patriotic War Museum.
Public voting took place on the website of the Moscow branch of the United Russia party. There was also a polling station at the museum.
The first design the prime minister saw depicts a railway car in the foreground, with troops arriving from the front getting out of it. The sagging arch in the background echoes the Glory Memorial in Kutaisi.
Another design represents two elderly veterans embracing near a torn flag with human figures silhouetted.
The third design is the statue of a woman in full-length dress and a headscarf, holding a scroll with the word "Remember" inscribed.
Another two designs represent the Victory Banner hoisted over the Reichstag.
The Kutaisi Glory Memorial of World War Two fighters, unveiled in 1981, was demolished on October 19, 2009, by decision of the Georgian government under the pretext of reconstruction. Neglect of safety rules caused several injuries and the death of a local woman and her eight-year-old daughter.
Vladimir Putin described the monument demolition as "another attempt to obliterate the memory of the shared past, including its heroic pages, from the historic memory of the former Soviet peoples," as he proposed a restoration of the monument in Moscow.
The foundation stone was laid on the Poklonnaya Hill site of the future monument on May 8 in his presence.
After the prime minister saw the designs, he answered Georgian journalists' question.
Question: Mr Prime Minister, US Secretary of State Ms Hillary Clinton visited Tbilisi today. She said that America will do everything it can to put and end to the "occupation" of Georgian regions, and that she would discuss the issue with Russia. Do you think Russia will end the occupation of our territories?
Vladimir Putin: You have long waited for the occasion to ask this question, so I will not evade it.
Some people think Georgian land is occupied, while others consider it liberated. This is a matter for a dialogue between the Georgian and South Ossetian peoples, which does not need references to third parties. We did not start the war, and responsibility for its consequences is on those who unleashed it. They must get up the nerve and change the hearts and minds of the people they have hurt. The matter requires negotiations, and the principles underlying the talks depend on the two negotiating parties.
Just as the other members of the international community, Russia can only be a guarantor of the process. I know there are many forces in Georgia that want Georgian-Russian relations normalised, and want to have a common future with the Ossetian people. This is the road to travel, and we should not seek other solutions.
America is America, Russia is Russia and Ossetia is Ossetia. There's nobody you can invoke, and you can't wait for manna from heaven. "We want no condescending saviours to rule us from their judgment hall" (quotation from l'Internationale). We need to do everything with our own hands. Something has been done already, and we need to make a step in the right direction.
