Prime Minister Narendra Modi today paid floral tributes to the victims of the World War II at the historic Piskarevskoe Memorial Cemetery in St Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia. Ahead of summit level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, PM drove to the monument on the north-eastern outskirts of the city that holds the graves of around five lakh who died during the Siege of Leningrad.

At the cemetery, PM placed flowers and then stood in silence for a few minutes. The Piskarevskoe Memorial Cemetery is the largest cemetery of the victims of the World War II.

In 186 mass graves in the cemetery lie the 420,000 residents of the city who died of starvation, bombing, shelling, and 70,000 soldiers – defenders of Leningrad, the old name of St Petersburg. PM Modi arrived on Wednesday evening in St. Petersburg, the former capital of imperial Russia that was founded by Czar Peter the Great in 1703, and was also known as Petrograd and Leningrad.