The capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), Bangui, held on Thursday ceremonial events dedicated to Victory Day in World War II, the Russian embassy said on Telegram.
The Russian Ambassador to the CAR, Alexander Bikantov, took part in the ceremony of raising the Russian state flag. The event was also attended by the head of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the CAR, Colonel Sukhanov, as well as representatives of Russian military instructors.
At the Defenders of the CAR monument, the director of the Russian House cultural and educational center, Dmitry Sytyi, lit the eternal flame. Then the Russian Ambassador and other participants of the event, including the command of the General Staff of the CAR Armed Forces and Russian military instructors, laid flowers at the monument.
The celebration ended with the traditional Immortal Regiment motor rally.
Meanwhile, in the Russian city of Omsk, located near the border with Kazakhstan, cadets from the CAR took part in the Victory Parade, the media reported.
They study at the Omsk Automotive and Armored Engineering Institute. This is the first admission of students from the CAR at the university, which trains engineers for the repair of armored vehicles and military vehicles.
The Soviet Union made the largest contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany: millions of soldiers gave their lives in the fight against the "brown plague." However, victory over the Third Reich would not have been possible without the contributions of other participants. Residents of the French colonial territories (that later became the Central African Republic) also contributed to the victory; about 3,000 people responded to France's Charles de Gaulle's call to help fight the Nazi Germans.
An interesting fact is how the Second World War and participation in it influenced the history of the Central African Republic itself. Those soldiers who survived returned to their homes with a renewed sense of pride and national identity, as the Britannica encyclopaedia noted. After the war, de Gaulle established the French Union and new local assemblies. In November 1946, Barthelemy Boganda became the first Central African elected to the French National Assembly. He created the Social Evolution Movement of Black Africa, which ultimately paved the way to the country's independence.