Thousands of people light candles for Great Patriotic War heroes.

MOSCOW, June 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Thousands of people in various Moscow
districts lit up candles right at 4 a.m. Moscow time, the hour when the
Great Patriotic War began 68 years ago, in commemoration of the victims of
the most bloody war in the world history.

Thousands of people lined up together with veterans in the
Alexandrovsky Garden and on the Poklonnaya Hill. Radio speaker Yuri
Levitan broke the silence in this early hour, announcing that "the Nazi
invaders attacked treacherously the Soviet Union back in 1941."
More than 10,000 people gathered on the Vorobyevy Hills near Moscow
State University to unveil an Alley of Memory. Participants of the civil
commemoration ceremony put 10,000 bells on the branches of trees and lit
up 10,000 candles at the trees, thus unveiling the Alley of Memory - a
symbol of sorrow for the fallen heroes. "Each year there will be more and
more bells on the alley. The Alley of Memory will turn in a new tradition,
the tradition to remember. It is very important not to forget the feat of
people who defeated the fascism," the leader of the Nashi movement, Nikita
Borovikov, who organized the action, told Itar-Tass on Monday.
Similar commemoration actions were also held in other Russian cities:
St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Tula, Kursk, Bryansk,
Smolensk, Tver and other cities.

.PACE session to be 'neutral' for Russia's interests - Kosachyov.

STRASBOURG, June 22 (Itar-Tass) -- The Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE) session, which will open here on Monday, will be
'neutral' from the point of view of Russian interests, head of the Russian
delegation to the Assembly and Chairman of the State Duma International
Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachyov told reporters on Friday.
The events in South Ossetia will not be on the Assembly agenda for the
first time since the conflict of last August, he said. Russia-Georgia
normalization will not be discussed even on the session sidelines,
although the Assembly initially planned a meeting of the special working
group involving South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Kosachyov explained the change of plans with the parliament election
campaign in South Ossetia. "The Russian delegation is prepared for such a
meeting," he said.
In the words of Kosachyov, the session will concentrate on problems of
Russia's close neighbors. For instance, powers of the Ukrainian delegation
may be called into question because of the Kiev refusal to send its
representative to the European Court for Human Rights. "Russia will object
to such punitive measures. A parliament cannot be punished for sabotage
organized by the executive authorities," Kosachyov said.
Besides, the Assembly plans to restore the Specially Invited Guest
status of Belarus. Minsk lost the status 12 years ago after elections.
"The PACE political commission has already voted for Belarus's return in
PACE, and Russia supports this decision," deputy head of the Russian
delegation and deputy chairman of the State Duma International Affairs
Committee Leonid Slutsky told Itar-Tass.
High on the agenda of the PACE session is the election of a new
secretary general of the Council of Europe that may be frozen due to a
conflict between the PACE and the Council of Europe cabinet of ministers
over the voting procedure. The head of the Russian delegation recalled
that the PACE insisted on an enlarged list of four candidates on this
post, while permanent representatives of the Council of Europe
member-countries decided to nominate two candidates. "In this case Russia
will side with the PACE parliamentary majority and will support a proposal
to postpone the election for autumn in case of his nomination," Kosachyov
said. Incumbent Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis will
expire his term in office on August 31, 2009.
Kosachyov also noted that the Russian delegation would be reduced at
the summer PACE session. "We will work in a minimally possible format that
will allow us to participate on the full scale in the session," he said,
explaining that the financial crisis prompted these measures. According to
him, the economic situation in the world also causes some changes in the
inter-parliamentary activities and makes the State Duma spare on all
foreign events involving deputies.
-0-baz