Russians Rally Against Pressure From the West
A national patriotic event called "Russia is in My Heart" has gone viral as events were held all over the country. The main venue was in the heart of the country, near Red Square, on Vasilievsky Spusk in Moscow.
Andrey Grigoryev has the details.
The weather seemed to be testing people's resilience. Despite the wet snow and piercing wind, the entire square is singing the National Anthem in unison.
Perhaps the most recognizable participant of the event is People's Artist of the USSR Vasily Lanovoy. After opening the meeting from a tribune, he approaches us.
Vasily Lanovoy, People's Artist of the USSR, co-chairman of the all-Russian "Immortal Regiment" movement: «I have never seen anything like this, just look around, it's beautiful! That's our Russia!
- That's how it's done! Is the snowfall bothering anyone?
Vasily Lanovoy: [sings] The snowfall will not stop us…You know, there was a song like that. Neither snowfall nor anything else can stop us… and so on, you get the idea. Thank you, I get very excited when I see all this, as I think, Yeah! That's right! That's how we do it in Russia!.
People of all ages — both young people and senior citizens — and of completely different professions came here.
- We came here to say that we love Russia and we remember our history.
- There shall be patriotism in our hearts, in events like this, and in the upbringing of the younger generation, so that's why we're here.
Valery Fadeev, Secretary of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation: "We proposed to hold a series of events like this throughout the country to show that we are not bothered by sanctions, by pressure during the Olympics, by cheating. We simply cannot be intimidated. We swim in icy water in winter. Do you think something can scare us?"
The event was arranged by the Russian Civic Chamber, but it was joined by dozens of other organizations: volunteers, veterans, students, and trade unions.
Alexey Savin, Deputy Head of Moscow Federation of Trade Unions: "Thousands of trade union members came today to Vasilievsky Spusk to express their position, which is based on our values — world peace, justice, and respect".
Dmitry Sablin, First Deputy Chairman of the All-Russian "Brothers in Arms" Organization of Veterans: "We just want to show that we are united, and as long as Russia is united, we have nothing to fear. When our grandfathers and great grandfathers defended Stalingrad, all armies in the world tried to push through, and they all failed. And today they will also fail if they try."
Of course, the event is not dedicated only to some historically significant dates. This is also about responding to economic sanctions and supporting our Olympic team.
"We came here, to the main square of our country, to support our team during the Olympics".
Anton Shipulin, Olympic champion in biathlon: "It's really important when people come together in one place like this to remember the Battle of Stalingrad, to support our Olympic team and more. I think that such events should be held as often as possible".
The organizers expected up to ten thousand people to take part in the event, but, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were at least six times more people on Vasilievsky Spusk.
Andrey Grigoryev, Dmitry Khrustalev, Victor Vinogradov, and Nikita Korneev for Saturday's edition of Vesti in Moscow