MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2019) An echelon with Soviet T-34 tanks transferred by Laos to Russia has arrived to Russia's eastern Zabaikalsky Territory to showcase the military hardware to the residents of the city of Chita, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sunday.
On January 9, the ministry announced that a total of 30 legendary Soviet T-34 tanks had been transferred by Laos to Russia within the framework of defense cooperation between the two countries. The tanks are planned to be used during Victory Parades, as well as in museum expositions and films about the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.
"The echelon with T-34 tanks arrived in the Zabaikalsky Territory ... Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, members of Russia's Young Army Cadets National Movement (Yunarmiya) and residents of the city had a chance to see the tanks in three hours of [the echelon's] stay at a station," the statement reads.
The agreement on the transfer of the Soviet tanks was reached during Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's visit to Laos in January 2017.
The T-34 was a technological breakthrough for its time. Between 1940 and 1946, the Soviet Union produced over 58,000 such tanks, however, to date only few of them remain operational.
