In an article by Putin published in the American journal National Interest, it was pointed out that more than 1 million 154 thousand soldiers of the Red Army were killed, wounded, or disappeared near Rzhev. The "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" indicated a figure of 1 million 342 thousand people.
“The fact is that, as you know, the National Interest article was sent in advance, the article was sent in a few days, and the work in the archives to clarify the numbers of the dead lasted until the last hour, when the Russian authentic text was sent to the publisher,” So Peskov commented on the discrepancy in the data.
According to him, “the most complete, comprehensive figure to date has been published in Russian.”
Peskov also noted that Putin plans to go to the opening of the memorial to the Soviet soldier near Rzhev, which should be opened on June 30.
On June 18, The National Interest magazine published an article by Putin on World War II in which he described the contribution of the USSR and the Red Army to the defeat of Nazi Germany as decisive. Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said that Putin’s article aroused considerable interest in the United States.