OREANDA-NEWS. May 21, 2010. The Chairman of the Government Commission on the Affairs of Compatriots Abroad, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov on May 19 held a traditional meeting at the Russian MFA Mansion with members of the World Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots (WCC), which is holding its session in Moscow during these days. Taking part in the meeting were members of the presidium of the Government Commission on the Affairs of Compatriots Abroad.

WCC members informed the Russian side of the participation of overseas compatriots in the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of Victory, and the work being conducted by the Council to consolidate the overseas Russian community, preserve its ethnocultural distinctiveness and strengthen its links with the historical Homeland.

Leaders of organizations of Russian compatriots expressed their solidarity with Great Patriotic War veteran Vasily Kononov over the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber decision dismissing the complaint of the former antifascist fighter, 87-year-old Latvian partisan convicted on a trumped-up charge of “war crimes” on the territory of Latvia in 1944.

The meeting passed in a friendly atmosphere.