Russia on Saturday, February 23, is celebrating Fatherland Defender Day – the modern version of what in the Soviet era was the Red Army and Navy Day. Since 2002 the date has been a public holiday and a day off.

In keeping with the years-long tradition the nation’s top officials, politicians, military, representatives of veterans’ and other non-governmental organizations will lay wreathes at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the foot of the Kremlin wall. Flowers will be also laid at the monument to Marshal Georgy Zhukov – the winner of many World War II battles on the Eastern front - and a monument to the law enforcers who lost their lives while on duty.

On the eve of the holiday President Vladimir Putin addressed an audience of distinguished guests at a gala ceremony in the Kremlin to congratulate “our dear veterans and those who serve in the Armed Forces these days and all those for whom the no easy military career has proved a calling and a cause of one’s life.”

“Our army today is first and foremost a community of professionally trained people of strong will, aware of the importance of military profession for our state and society,” he said.

“We should address them with words of gratitude for being worthy of their service, often fraught with dangers and risks,” the commander-in-chief said.

The president looked back on the nation’s history chronicle, which, he said contained “many pages telling stories of courage and heroism displayed by the country’s defenders.”

“We revere the traditions of Russian warriors. Those traditions were forged in sanguinary battles for the native land, they grew stronger in liberation crusades for the sake of independence of other peoples on the globe, and for many centuries they were the spiritual backbone of the army, of our state and of our people,” Putin said.

“Russia is a peace-seeking state. It respects partners. We do not threaten anybody. Nor do we hatch aggressive plots,” Putin said. “However, in the modern world there still exists a major conflict-breeding potential. We are witnesses to dangerous defiance of international law and to the ambition of using military force for attaining one’s selfish interests. This is so at a time when stability in the world is faced with a real threat of terrorism, extremism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” the Russian leader said. “The security of Russia and its citizens can be guaranteed only by strengthening the national defense potential and having an up-to-date army adequate to the level of threats.”

Russia’s newly-appointed defense minister, Anatoly Serdiukov, and the commanders of arms and services addressed subordinates and retired military with their own greetings, too.

“This truly national holiday is evidence the bonds linking generations are firm and the army’s traditions, continuous. It is also an embodiment of the military’s self-sacrificial service to the nation and a token of that service’s recognition by the state,” the defense minister’s order issued on the occasion runs.

Opinion polls indicate that most Russians are certain the armed forces are capable of defending the country from any aggressor.

As many as 67 percent of the respondents expressed this opinion, the national public opinion studies center VCIOM said on the eve of the holiday.

“Eighteen months ago 60 percent of those polled said so. In the meantime the number of skeptics who doubt the country’s defense capability has been down from 33 percent to 27 percent,” the pollster said.

MOSCOW, February 23 (Itar-Tass)