Russia and United States Planning Joint 9/11 Anniversary Event

July 1, 2021 (EIRNS)—The Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office and Russia’s former Permanent Representative to UN International Organizations in Vienna Vladimir Voronov issued a statement June 30, that: “On the subject of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, we are working with our American colleagues to organize an event to commemorate the victims. At our office, the terrorists’ victims are one of the top issues. It is crucial to pay more attention to them and their plight.”

The report in RT includes the following: “In 2005, the Russian government gifted a 10-story sculpture called ‘To the Struggle Against World Terrorism’ by artist Zurab Tsereteli to the United States. Also known as the ‘Teardrop Memorial,’ it is located in New Jersey, and was opened at a ceremony attended by Putin.” Tsereteli’s bronze monument, facing toward where the World Trade Center stood, depicts a jagged rip through the center of the monument in the midst of which hangs a 4-ton nickel teardrop.

The Schiller Institute Chorus has joined with Russian UN representatives, and the Bayonne, N.J. Fire Department in a wreath-laying commemoration at the Teardrop Memorial every Christmas, in memory of the airplane crash off Sochi, Russia, on Dec. 25, 2016 that took the lives of all 92 passengers, including 64 members of Alexandrov Ensemble Choir, known as the Red Army Chorus. They were en route to Syria, to provide aid to the Syrian people, and comfort to Russian troops who would be spending Christmas far from home in the fight against terrorism.

The existence of the Memorial, on the shore of the Hudson River in Bayonne, New Jersey, where people had gathered on 9/11 to watch the horrible event across the river in Manhattan, is virtually unknown to Americans. Perhaps the effort by Mr. Voronov of the UN could lead to a joint U.S.-Russian event at the Memorial, to help inform Americans of the gift and the sentiment from Russia and from President Vladimir Putin, who said at the laying of the cornerstone, on Sept. 16, 2005, “this monument will always be a testimony for our unity in the struggle against common threats. ... We should never forget that, for all their impressive and grandiose nature, such monuments represent concrete individuals, people who will always live on, not only in stone, not only in monuments, but in our hearts.”