Leading marchers at the Immortal Regiment march organised in Belgrade to mark Victory Day held a large banner with the words “The Immortal Regiment of Belgrade,” a cardboard cutout of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a large Latin-script letter “Z”, and was attended by a Serbian minister who owns a company in Russia.
The march was organised by the Russian Embassy and was attended by the Russian Ambassador and Nenad Popović, Serbia’s minister without portfolio, who also has Russian citizenship and owns a company in Russia.
“Serbia and Russia have always been on the right side of history,” said Popović, who is also the president of the parliamentary group of friendship between Serbia and Russia. “Our grandparents won the war together with our Russian brothers,” he added.
Walking together with the minister were the Russian Ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, a Socialist Party of Serbia official and the Srbijagas utility director, Dušan Bajatović, and Ivan Kostić, an official of the extreme right-wing opposition party Dveri.
Many marchers were carrying the photos of their predecessors killed in World War II, commemorated in the event, and a big tricolour, with all three Pan-Slavic colours, used by both Serbia and Russia.
The citizens who joined the March of the Immortal Regiment walked from downtown Belgrade to the New Cemetery and the Monument to the Liberators of Belgrade, where many Red Army soldiers are buried.
During World War II, Belgrade was liberated by Yugoslav partisans and troops from the third Ukrainian front of the Soviet Red army.
Russian flags and the Z insignia were also displayed at a Victory Day gathering in the southern Serbia city of Niš.
