Victory Weekend in London
From 7th to 10th of May 2015 several events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the victory in WWII took place in London, UK. Arbat Capital has been sponsoring the visits of Russian and Latvian veterans to London for a long time.The program for 2015 celebrations is quite special — veterans enjoyed a visit to a serving British warship on the Thames, a private visit to the Tower of London and the premiere showing of the «Red Division» motion picture, and also stepped onboard HMS Belfast as honorable guests. Arbat Capital is a long time donator of The Last Witness project.
The Last Witness is a project intended to rebuild and support the famous British warship HMS Belfast, which is permanently berthed on the River Thames in central London. The Belfast is part of the Imperial War Museum. During the Second World War, the light cruiser Belfast participated in many battles in the War at sea. For two years the Belfast accompanied convoys of weapons and food to the freezing northern ports of Russia. The cruiser played a key role in the Battle of the North Cape (north of Norway), when the British Navy sank the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst, which had been menacing merchant ships in the Barents Sea bound for Murmansk with military supplies for the Russian front. The Belfast is the last remaining major warship that participated in battles with ships of the Scharnhorst’s class.
On the 9th of May veterans and their families met the Russian Embassy officials at the Soviet War Memorial next to the main building of the Imperial War Museum for the solemn wreath-laying, and flowers, to commemorate the multitude of souls who did not survive to enjoy that first Victory Day.