Member of Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, after the Victory Parade in Moscow on Wednesday, had several bilateral meetings with officials who attended this important event.
Dodik talked with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, and then with the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, the President of South Ossetia Anatoly Bibolov and the President of Serbia Alexander Vucic.
Earlier, a member of the Presidency of BiH, together with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and officials from 12 countries, laid flowers at the Monument to the Heroes of Russia.
The member of the Presidency of BiH attended the solemn parade on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory over fascism, and he was welcomed on the Red Square in Moscow by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
Victory Day marks the end of World War II and the victory of the Allied Forces in 1945. Adolf Hitler had shot himself on April 30. On May 7, German troops surrendered, which was formally accepted the next day, and came into effect on May 9.
The erstwhile Soviet Union had not wanted the surrender to take place in the west, and wanted that such a significant event should reflect the contribution of the Red Army and the Soviet population. According to military historian Antony Beevor’s definitive book on World War II, Joseph Stalin, premier of the Soviet Union, wanted Germany to also sign a surrender in Berlin, according to the Indian Express.
The Act of Military Surrender was signed by Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command Generallutenant Alfred Jodl and General Admiral Hans-George von Friedeburg in the early hours of May 7 in France at Rheims, which was the headquarters of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). The surrender was to come into effect a minute past midnight on May 9.
But, Beevor writes, “Stalin could not let the final ceremony take place in the west, so he insisted that the Germans sign another surrender in Berlin, at one minute past midnight on 9 May, the moment the capitulation agreed at Rheims came into effect”. Though the document was signed, Beevor says that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill “cabled Stalin to explain that, since crowds were already gathering in London to celebrate, Victory in Europe Day celebration in Britain would take place on 8 May, as they did in the United States”.
This did not convince Stalin, who argued that “Soviet troops were still fighting” the German forces in many areas. German soldiers did not surrender in East Prussia, Courland Peninsula, Czechoslovakia till later. “Victory celebration, Stalin wrote, could therefore not begin in the Soviet Union till 9 May,” Beevor says in his book.
(Source: Srna, Vijesti.ba)
