January 26, a solemn funeral ceremony of laying wreaths at the monument to Motherland as part of celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade took place at the Piskaroyvskoye memorial cemetery.

The ceremony was attended by the Chairman of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin and Constitutional Court judges, St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko and Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Vyacheslav Makarov, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Rules and Organization of parliamentary activity, a representative from the state legislature city authorities Vadim Tulips, Presidential Envoy to the Northwestern Federal District Vladimir Bulavin, members of the government of the city and the region, representatives of the Western Military District, the delegations of various public organizations and veteran’s organizations, business representatives, military and educational institutions, as well as representatives of the Government of St. Petersburg.

Ahead of each delegation, a military mourning wreaths proceeded. The ceremony was attended by veterans . Many of them have specially arrived in St. Petersburg from other cities and countries.

Among them there was a veteran form the Republic of Tatarstan Gaynutdin Musin, who together with the staff of Permanent Mission of the Republic of Tatarstan took part in a ceremony.

Piskaroyvskoye memorial cemetery spaces 186 mass graves in which lie 420,000 residents of the city, died of starvation, bombing, shelling and 70,000 warriors defenders of Leningrad.

The memorial complex was opened May 9, 1960 , during the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Victory. Its center is the monument “Motherland”, near which the eternal flame is burning.

January 27, at the hotel “Moscow” , a meeting took place of the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tatarstan Shamil Ahmetshin with the veterans, having arrived from the Tatarstan republic, Islam Shakirov , Zinaida Bushueva, Gaynutdin Musin. They shared memories about events that occurred during the blockade of Leningrad.

After the meeting, Shamil Akhmetshin handed gifts to the veterans.