Remembrance Day of Internationalist Soldiers
Description:
Excerpt from the speech of Vladimir Putin at the solemn meeting dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of Soldiers-Internationalists:
“Over half a million Soviet soldiers and officers passed through the Afghan war. And we have no right to forget that military men went to her, following the oath. And thousands of servicemen gave their lives doing their soldier's duty, their army duty. We can never forget that.
The war in Afghanistan reflected all the contradictions, all the complexity of that era. And it was itself a genuinely hot part of the long Cold War. But no one thought about how to solve the economic problems of one of the poorest countries in the world. It was also ignored that interethnic and inter-clan contradictions in Afghanistan escalated to such an extent that they brought the country closer to civil war.
Yes, the leadership of the Soviet Union did not immediately decide to send troops to Afghanistan. And the state of affairs in this country was regularly discussed in the Politburo, in the General Staff. At the same time, there were constant requests from Afghanistan to provide military assistance. As a result, this decision was made in December 79.”