VORONEZH, May 23 – Vasiliy Nikitin, a Hero of Soviet Union (the Soviet equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor) received a phone call in the morning, telling him to stay home for lunch, because he would be getting a “phone call from Moscow at noon”. Precisely at noon the phone rang and the WWII veteran was told to hold for a moment. Nikitin didn’t know who was calling and for what reason, but he later said that “When he started talking to me, I knew right away it was Putin himself!”

The veteran was flattered and nervous and doesn’t remember how long he talked with the President, “probably 15-20 minutes”. Nikitin shared with the President his memories of being wounded eight times while fighting the Germans and getting caught in his burning tank several times. Putin listened with interest and didn’t interrupt the old man.

There are only six heroes from The Great Patriotic War (Russia's term for WWII) left in Voronezh, out of 57… Vasiliy Nikitin chose to receive the cash value of his cancelled veterans' pension, but the local government has never paid him. Considering his miserable state pension, this hero barely survives. The NTV Channel ran a special report about this veteran and a day later Putin promised the old man that he would personally solve his unpaid pension problem. Something tells me Vasiliy will be getting a check for the remainder of his days…