Alexandrov Ensemble Commemorated Amidst Growing U.S. and NATO Tension with Russia

by Richard A. Black, Schiller Institute Representative at the U.N.

[Print version of this article]

Dec. 31—Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated emphatically at the commemoration of the Alexandrov Ensemble, “The Schiller Institute fully endorses the demand by Russia that these treaties must be signed, and that the world must be pulled back from the brink of the abyss.” She explained, “Unfortunately, our species finds itself right now in an incredible danger, in which the world is faced with a reverse Cuban Missile Crisis, to which the President of your country has reacted in an unmistakable fashion: he insists, rightfully, that the promises given to Russia around the time of the German Unification, that NATO would not move eastward, closer to the borders of Russia, and which were broken repeatedly, now belatedly be restated in a written and legally binding form—at least as it concerns Ukraine and Georgia.”

Ambassador Dmitry Chumakov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Mission to the UN, presented an extraordinary short statement at the memorial ceremony which marked the fifth anniversary of the tragic death of the entire Alexandrov Ensemble, of humanitarian workers, and others, in a plane crash near Sochi, Russia, on their way to war-torn Syria. Ambassador Chumakov’s full text, and the full text of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s statement, which was read at the ceremony, follow below.

Guests gathered at the Tear of Grief monument in Bayonne, N.J. on December 29. Capt. Randy Geis, representing the City of Bayonne Fire Department, opened the ceremony. Dr. Harold Rosenbaum, a well-known New York choral director and teacher, sent a message of remembrance. Powerful vocal selections from the Russian repertoire were presented by singers Lisa Bryce, Michelle Erin, and Everett Suttle, with piano accompaniment by David Maiullo. The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus performed Grechaninov’s “Praise Ye the Name of the Lord.”

Ambassador Chumakov thanked the Schiller Institute and the City of Bayonne Fire Department for years of activity in proving the strength of the friendship of the Russian and American people, “amidst a very complicated international situation.”