Soviet army veterans will be awarded medals made from Russian metal

The Second World War veterans who formed part of the Soviet army will be decorated medals made from Russian metal. The leader of the United Moldova Party Vladimir Turcan told a news conference on Friday that they agreed with United Russia Party to make 5,492 medals for the Moldovan veterans, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vladimir Turcan criticized the Filat Government for not including the word 'victory' in the executive's program “65 years of the end of the World War II”. He said he will go to the Premier and negotiate with him so that the veterans celebrate the victory day not the end of the war on May 9. “Even those who are not historians know that the Second World War did not end on May 9, 1945, but in September 1945,” Turcan said. “I noticed that some of the senior officials are ashamed of this holiday, others are afraid or deny the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition in the war,” Turcan said. According to him, Premier Vlad Filat does not celebrate this holiday because he is ashamed in front of his voters, while Mihai Ghimpu neglects this day. “The CIS program on the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the end of the war approved at the CIS summit in Chisinau last autumn was signed by Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar not Mihai Ghimpu.” Vitalie Klimenko, the chairman of the United Moldova Party's veteran organization, said he welcomes Mihai Ghimpu's decision to give identical medals to the veterans who fought as part of the Soviet and Romanian armies, but neither the party nor the veterans agree with the color of the ribbon of the commemorative cross – black and white. In this connection, Vladimir Turcan said these colors are strange. “We propose using blue and red as they are more often used in our symbols. We also demand indicating that the decorated person fought as part of the anti-Hitler coalition as we know that Romania joined the coalition at the end of the war.” The MP also said that a bank account will be soon opened with Banca de Economii to collect money and create a fund to support the veterans, including those who were members of the Romanian army. The collected money will be given to veterans on May 9, he added. The party also proposed planting 65 trees at the memorial complex “Eternitate”. Vladimir Turcan said he will lodge an application with the Ministry of Defense and ask allowing planting the trees in April. Asked what kind of trees they want to plant, Turcan said he will consult with specialists of Moldsilva Agency. “They could be oak trees (the oak tree is the symbol of the Liberal Democratic Party – e.n.), but I think we should better plant 'neutral' trees,” he said. According to the data provided at the conference, in Moldova there are 5,492 veterans of the Soviet army and and 544 veterans of the Romanian army.