OVER 70 FIREWORK PLATFORMS FOR VICTORY DAY FESTIVITIES IN MOSCOW

MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti) - The Victory Day spectacular fireworks in Moscow will be ensured by over 70 firework mounts, commander of the salute battalion Vyacheslav Paradnikov told RIA Novosti. His unit will ensure the staging of the May 9 fireworks for Muscovites and guests. On May 9 Russia celebrates the victory over German fascism in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

"Eighteen guns and 72 platforms will participate in the May 9 salute and fireworks", Paradnikov said.

The entire range of Russian products designed for such events will be used, he said.

"In all, 30 salvos will be made. The firing platforms will sit in 31 places in Moscow", Paradnikov said.

The salute and fireworks will be grand, he promised. "It will be heard and seen from anywhere in Moscow because all gages of salute mounts will be used - 105, 195 and 310 millimetres", he said.

As the tradition goes, salutes and fireworks will be held in every Russian hero-city, as well as in Kaliningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Chita, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Severomorsk, Sevastopol at 22:00, local time.

The salute battalion will also be in use during the May 7 presidential inauguration of Vladimir Putin. "The inauguration salute will engage all the 18 guns, which will make 30 salvos", Paradnikov said.