OREANDA-NEWS. On February 15, representatives of the CIS border departments made a start of the International Friendship Relay Race in Minsk.

According to Oleg Abyzov, the deputy chairman of the Belarusian State Border Committee, the International Friendship Relay Race is timed to the 90th anniversary of the border troops and the 63rd anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The decision to hold the relay race was passed by the CIS Council of Border Troops Commanders on September 12 2007.

The relay race will begin with a meeting-requiem in honour of the 19th anniversary of the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan and laying flowers at the monument to soldiers of Afghan war.

It will go along the external CIS borders and will finish in Moscow on May 28.

The relay race will include routes. The first one – Belarus-Ukraine-Moldova-Russia-Armenia will start in Minsk on February 15. In Belarus the relay will span 19 towns and settlements including Polotsk, Verkhnedvinsk, Postavy, Smorgon, Lida, Grodno, Brest and others. The changeover area will be the checkpoint Mokrany. On February 25 the relay will be continued by the Ukrainian border guards. The second route – Russia-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan will start on February 15 in Moscow.

Participants of the relay races will arrive in the Russian capital on May 26 -27. On May 28 – the Day of Border Guard – a solemn session will sum up the results of the International Friendship Relay Race.