Modi pays homage at St Petersburg s WWII cemetery

St Petersburg June 1 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid homage at the Piskariovskoye Memorial Cemetery here a reminder of the hundreds of thousands of people who lost their lives during the nearly 900-day Siege of Leningrad as St Petersburg was then known during the Second World War.

Modi laid a wreath at the cemetery where the bodies of about half a million Russian people including 420 000 civilians are laid to rest.

These people died mostly due to cold and starvation because of the siege laid by the Nazis from September 1941 to January 1944.

Modi also signed the visitor s book at the memorial.

The Prime Minister arrived in Russia on Wednesday on the third leg of his six-day four-nation tour of Europe.

Later on Thursday he will hold the 18th India-Russia annual bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. India and Russia are celebrating 70 years of diplomatic ties this year.

On Friday Modi will attend for the first time the St Petersburg International Economic Forum a business event.

From Russia he will leave for France on the fourth and final leg of his tour and hold his first meeting with newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

Before Russia the Prime Minister visited Germany and Spain.

--IANS
ab/vt