(CNN) Russia is taking back World War II-era tanks from Laos because, well, Moscow needs a star, lots of them.

The Russian Defense Ministry said this week that 30 T-34 tanks had arrived in the far eastern port of Vladivostok after a 4,500-kilometer (2,800-mile) journey from the Southeast Asian nation. They soon will be on their way to the Moscow area.

Until recently, the tanks were on active duty in the Laotian military, almost 80 years after first being introduced into the Soviet military in 1940.

The T-34 was the backbone of Soviet armor in World War II and beyond.

"No tank affected the outcome of World War 2 as the Soviet T-34 Medium Tank series," according to the militaryfactory.com website

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