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On Monday, participants in a Cossack mounted expedition from Moscow to Paris crossed the border with Belarus. The event is one of the events marking the 200th anniversary of the First Great Patriotic War of 1812. At the border town of Lyady, they were greeted with bread and salt, apples, and folk songs performed by a chorus of Grannies. Subsequently, the Cossacks rode to Orsha. Greeting the mounted Cossacks, Viktor Malashenko, the Russian Embassy Counsellor in Belarus emphasised the importance of the event, which serves to remind everybody in Belarus of the heroic events of that war. On Tuesday, the Cossacks will hit the road once again, their route taking them through six countries to the Paris suburb of Fontainebleau.
21 August 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_08_21/Mounted-Cossacks-cross-border-with-Belarus/
