Overview

• Russian parliamentary leader, Vyacheslav Volodin, issued a warning of a potential third world war during the 80th anniversary of the end of the siege of Leningrad.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attended memorial events in St. Petersburg, including the unveiling of a statue commemorating civilians killed during the Nazi onslaught.
• More than 1 million Leningrad residents perished from hunger, or air and artillery bombardments, during the nearly two-and-a-half year blockade by Nazi forces.
• An open-air exhibition was set up in central St. Petersburg to remind residents of some of the most harrowing moments in the city’s history, including a typical blockade-era apartment and replicas of trams and ambulances from the early 1940s.
• World War II, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people, is a linchpin of Russia’s national identity.