Germany's decision to allocate 12 million euros ($13.2 million dollars) to help survivors of the Siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) is a welcome gesture, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2020) Germany's decision to allocate 12 million Euros ($13.2 million Dollars) to help survivors of the Siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) is a welcome gesture, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
On January 27, 2019, the German government announced it would be donating 12 million euros to modernize a veterans' hospital and establish a Russia-German Center to mark 75 years since the blockade was lifted. Russian newspaper Kommersant on Friday reported that an agreement to allocate medical equipment as part of the funds would be signed in the coming days.
"This can only be welcomed, of course, but without forgetting about the care that is given to the veterans through the creation of infrastructure and in terms of support ... from our government, from our leadership, from our country. But, of course, such gestures are also highly appreciated, especially in the year of the 75th anniversary [of victory of Soviet forces over Nazi Germany]," Peskov told reporters at a regular daily briefing.
The agreement had been in the works since at least May 2018 when, during a visit to Moscow, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced plans to bestow aid to survivors as a recognition of Germany's historical responsibility.
The Siege of Leningrad, one of the more horrific chapters in World War II, began on September 8, 1941 and lasted 872 days. Anywhere between 400,000 and 1.5 million people are said to have died, mostly due to starvation.
