&host=www.rt.com&uri=/news/sweden/&via=1.1 8.27.241.145:80 (Footprint 4.8/FPMCP)&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html))
War that united: Russians and Swedes celebrate 200 years of peace
Published: 21 August, 2009, 05:11
TAGS: Meeting, Military, Russia, Politics, Europe
Russian diplomats have been invited for the first time to commemorate the last war between Russia and Sweden.
he Russian delegation visited the place where the final shots of the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809 rang out, and laid flowers on Russian soldiers’ graves.
Aleksandr Kadakin, the Russian ambassador to Sweden, said that the end of the war marked the beginning of fruitful bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
“This celebration in the north of Sweden is a symbol of a peaceful epoch in our bilateral relations after 34 wars, symbol of our hopes for tighter cooperation, especially in the political sphere,” he said.
In the war Russia conquered the territory of present-day Finland, which was then part of the Swedish empire. However, Sweden still celebrates the battle they lost because it was the final conflict the country was involved in.
“For us, the last Russian–Swedish war is the beginning of 200 years of peace and neutrality,” said Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, who attended the ceremony with the queen.
“The celebration allows us to get together and think and contemplate about what is happening now,” he added.
21.08.2009, 02:14
5 comments
Medvedev’s and Putin’s approval rate risesRussians are approving of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s policies more and more, according to recently released poll results. |
21.08.2009, 08:14
Forced to be vegetarian—is it coming to that?Vegetarians find their numbers swelling. This is not because vast numbers of people are suddenly convinced that “meat is murder”. No, because the sagging global economy is pushing meat further out of reach. |
We lived in Sweden for a while and the longer we lived there, the more we hated it. Does anyone remember how they behaved with Nazi Germany during World War II? There are STILL large empty stretches of Finnish Lappland because the Swedes allowed the Germans to travel North through Sweden to attack Finland from the North.