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Changing Russian Bikers’ Victory Day Route Means Giving Up on History

© Photo : Courtesy of "Night Wolves"Night Wolves bikers, front: Alexander "Surgeon" Zaldostanov
Night Wolves bikers, front: Alexander Surgeon Zaldostanov - Sputnik International
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Participants of the Victory Day ride to Berlin do not intend to change the route of their journey to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, the head of the Night Wolves motorcycle club Alexander “Surgeon” Zaldostanov told reporters.

The rally started Saturday in Moscow: about four dozen Night Wolves members are planning to visit Minsk, Brest, Wroclaw, Brno, Bratislava, Vienna, Munich and Prague and finish the journey on May 9 in Berlin, laying flowers at the monument for Soviet soldiers in Treptow Park.

"If we give up on this [ride], we should as well give up on everything — May 9 [Victory Day], the graves [of the fallen Soviet soldiers in WWII], on monuments, on memory, on our history, on all our values – we will lie in a coffin and die immediately. This would not happen,” the leader of the Russian bikers club said.

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Bumpy Ride: Poland Bans Russian Bikers From Driving Through to Berlin
On Friday, the Polish Foreign Ministry officially banned the Night Wolves from entering Poland during their planned trip to Berlin citing a lack of details on the planned activities of the bikers, their exact travel routes as well as the location of their nightly rest stops.

The bikers do not intend to change the route of their Victory rally despite the entry ban imposed by Warsaw, Zaldostanov said.

"We will not abandon our plan, we will not change the route. If we are not allowed [to enter Poland] all together, we will ride one by one, from different places," he said.

Motorcyclists attend a mass during the annual Polish motorcyclists pilgrimage to the Jasna Gora monastery, the country's greatest place of pilgrimage hosting the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Czestochowa, Poland, April 19, 2015 - Sputnik International
Polish Bikers Resolve to Ensure Safe Passage for Russia's Night Wolves

According to Zaldostanov, the participants of the motorcycle rally are to reach Poland in about two days, on April 27.

The head of the Night Wolves also noted that "Polish politicians live their lives, and ordinary people live another life, we are pleased that the Poles in general support us."

As an example, Zaldostanov cited the fact that recently the 30,000 Polish bikers had adopted a resolution in support of the Night Wolves’ Victory Day ride to ensure that the Russian bikers receive "security and hospitality" in Poland.

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