RF marks 67th anniversary of Battle of Stalingrad victory.

MOSCOW, February 2 (Itar-Tass) - The Day of Rout of Nazi troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad by Soviet forces is marked in Russia on Tuesday. The
Battle ended 67 years ago, on February 2, 1943, with Soviet troops'
outright victory.

This Day of Military Glory, sealed in the Federal law dated February
10, 1995, and in the Presidential Decree dated March 13, 1995, ushers in a
series of public and military holidays and memorable dates of military
history in February, an official at the Rosvoyentsentr (State Military
Historical and Cultural Center) has told Itar-Tass. The Day of Rout of
Nazi troops in the Battle of Stalingrad by Soviet forces is among the
first ten Days of Military Glory instituted in contemporary Russia. It has
been marked since 1996.
The Rosvoyentsentr official mentioned such important dates of the
current month as the 65th anniversary of the seizure of Budapest by the
troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts (February 13), the Day of
Commemoration of servicemen-internationalists (February 15), and the
Fatherland Defenders' Day, equated to a Day of Military Glory (February
23).
In the estimate of historians, the Battle of Stalingrad, which
continued for 200 days and nights, was the longest and most arduous one in
the entire Second World War. The Nazis lost about 1.5 million men killed,
wounded, or taken prisoner. Over 2, 000 tanks, 10,000 artillery guns and
mortars, and 3,000 airplanes of the enemy were destroyed.
One hundred and twelve Soviet servicemen were awarded the title of
Hero of the Soviet Union. Over 707,000 people were awarded the medal "For
the Defence of Stalingrad", instituted in December1942.
The scope of celebration of the 67th anniversary of the Battle of
Stalingrad, in the estimate of Rosvoyentsentr press service, is comparable
to the jubilee celebrations in previous years.
In the year of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory, the
celebration of days of military glory is included in the list of
ceremonial events. On Tuesday, people are expected to throng the Central
Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 on Poklonnaya Hill. Films
are to be shown and meetings with war veterans are to be held in the
Diorama Complex of the museum, one of the halls of which is dedicated to
the Battle of Stalingrad.
In view of the restoration work on the National Military Glory
Memorial in the Alexander Garden and the transfer of the Eternal Flame to
the Military Glory Memorial on Poklonnaya Hill, a tribute of memory is to
be paid to the fallen defenders of the Fatherland over there.

.Altai to deliver transformer substations to Turkmenistan.

BARNAUL, February 2 (Itar-Tass) - The Altai Territory is to supply
Turkmenistan with new transformer substations that have been developed
under a special order placed by the enterprises of that country, an
official at the Territorial department for industry and energy told
Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
In 2010, the Altai transformer manufacturing plant (ATMP) will make
and deliver oil-immersed distribution transformers and complete
transformer substations with a voltage of up to 10 kV worth a total of
over $2 million to the enterprises of Turkmenistan.
Territorial Vice-Governor Vitaly Ryapolov said, "Two months after
negotiations with representatives from Turkmenistan, the ATMP worked out
and made the new products -- a transformer installation which is almost
twice as powerful as its analogues".
The ATMP is Siberia's major manufacturer of electrical engineering
products. The enterprise has been operating on this market for over 60
years.

.Int'l forum on total ban on nukes to open in Paris Tue.

PARIS, February 2 (Itar-Tass) - An international forum on the problem
of achieving a total ban on nuclear weapons opens here on Tuesday. This
imitative was proposed by US President Barack Obama at the European
Union-USA summit in April last year.
More than 200 politicians, diplomats, military, and cultural figures
will take part in the forum named Global Zero. Many of them are convinced
that the availability of nuclear weapons with big powers only prompts
other countries to seek possession of such weapons, too.
Expert opinion is that the goal of complete renunciation of nuclear
armaments is not a utopia. Thus, they recall, Russia and the United States
eliminated about 50,000 nuclear weapons in the period from 1988 to 2008.
The meeting in Paris is a public gathering, rather than a political
forum. One of the main subjects of discussion will be the dissemination of
disarmament ideas in various countries.
It is known, in particular, that the idea of a complete nuclear
disarmament is nit supported by the leadership of France. French
diplomatic sources emphasize in this connection that renunciation of
nuclear weapons, that is, a nuclear deterrent force, would lead to the
need to make up for that by an increase in conventional arms, which would
entail large financial expenses.
Forum organizers believe that the forum is of great importance in the
run-up to the forthcoming nuclear security summit, due to be held in
April, and the May conference on a revision of the provisions of the
Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The forum will continue till February 4.
-0-pop


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next