Putin: Kremlin continuing to defend its sovereignty

Moscow: Russia on Tuesday celebrated National Unity Day, marking the anniversary of the liberation of the Kremlin from Polish invaders in 1612. On the occasion, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is defending its sovereignty today, as it did in 1612.

Putin laid a wreath at the well-known statue of Merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky on Red Square.

The president was accompanied by heads of the country’s traditional religions.

Minin and Pozharsky raised a popular militia in Nizhny Novgorod city, which liberated the Kremlin from foreign rulers and elected new Tsar Mikhail I of the Romanov dynasty, who ruled till the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Addressing a Kremlin investiture ceremony, Putin said Russia is defending its sovereignty today, as it did back in 1612 when it fought against Polish invaders. “I cordially congratulate you on National Unity Day. This holiday was established to commemorate the heroic deed of our people who rose to the defence of the country’s independence more than four centuries ago.

“The nation’s unity, responsibility and duty to the fatherland made it possible to strengthen the state system, defend the sacred right to hold on to our roots and moral principles,” he said. “And, continuing these traditions, we are defending Russia’s sovereignty, honour, and dignity through our peaceful, creative, and combat exploits,” state-run TASS quoted Putin as saying. The National United Day was introduced in 2005 under President Putin to replace the ‘Great October Socialist Revolution’, which was celebrated on November 7 with historic military parades at Red Square until the collapse of the USSR.

Although initially the National Unity Day was not welcomed by the older generation, which continued to celebrate Revolution Day on Nov 7, the younger generation embraced it in the past 20 years.