President Vladimir Putin visited the village of Borodino outside Moscow on Sunday, to attend bicentenary celebrations of the 1812 Patriotic War.
As part of the celebrations, military history clubs from around the world staged a re-enactment of the Battle of Borodino, a decisive conflict between the Russian and French armies.
The president laid flowers at a monument to 1812 war heroes and gave a speech.
Our country has seen a number of wars and catastrophes in its lifetime. Still, only two of them have been named patriotic. They will be engraved in our memory forever. Both wars had a decisive meaning for Russia, Europe and the whole world. The two Great Patriotic Wars went down in history as a proof of unprecedented devotion of our people, who stood up for their country and granted it a status of a world power, he said.
Putin also awarded Mozhaysk and Maloyaroslavets with City of Military Glory titles.
After the award ceremony, the president met with the participants in the battle re-enactment, and visited the Borodino battle museum.
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