MOSCOW. May 17 (Interfax) - Celebrating the Day of Liberation and Salvation (the Jewish holiday marking Nazi Germany's capitulation) will bolster the spiritual and historical traditions of Russian Jews and the patriotic upbringing of the younger generation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"I have no doubt that a broad celebration of the Day of Liberation and Salvation will bolster the spiritual, cultural and historical traditions of Russian Jews and the patriotic upbringing of the younger generation," Putin said in his greetings published on the Kremlin website.
This holiday "has a special place in the Jewish religious calendar, and helps preserve the memory of the unprecedented feat of Red Army soldiers and the soldiers of the allied armies of the anti-Hitler coalition, who crushed Nazism and saved the Jews and other peoples from the threat of total annihilation," he said.
Current and future generations should remember the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, and understand what destructive consequences any toleration of nationalism, anti-Semitism or xenophobia have, Putin said.