OREANDA-NEWS. July 15, 2009. A ceremony of handing over to the American side of copies of archival documents from the stocks of the Russian State Military Archive (RSMA) took place at the Russian Foreign Ministry premises on July 10. This event was timed for the Russia-US summit held in Moscow the other day. Igor Neverov, Director of the Ministry’s Department of North America; Vladimir Tarasov, Deputy Head of the Federal Archive Agency; and on the American side – US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle, and Defense Attache Daniel Eagle – took part in the ceremony.

These documents of more than 400 pages contain information from RSMA trophy stocks about American POWs of World War II and include, in particular, German criminal police bulletins on the search for escaped war prisoners of different nationalities; lists of war prisoners and civilians used for forced labor, with the indication of places of burial; registration forms and other documents. This will help the American side clarify the destinies of many US servicemen who had gone missing during the war and thus bring solace to their kith and kin.

The sides noted the successes achieved at the summit, in the course of which, in particular, the legal status of the Russian-American Commission on Prisoners of War and Missing in Action was codified by the exchange of notes, and expressed a firm intention to develop this important humanitarian area of bilateral cooperation.

The American side reaffirmed readiness to render all possible assistance in the search for missing Soviet servicemen and in the clarification of the names of those buried in common graves on the territory of other countries.