MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - President...

"This is a special holiday for people like you who dedicated themselves to space flights," Putin told Russian Valery Tokarev, American William McArthur and Marcos Pontes, who became the first Brazilian in space during the trip.

Speaking in a live video link-up with the trio, currently being debriefed at the Star City training center near Moscow, Putin also congratulated the 12th ISS crew on their successful mission.

Pontes said his flight had been made possible by joint efforts between Brazil and Russia. He returned to Earth April 9 with the ISS crew, whose mission began in October 2005.

The two-man ISS crew has been replaced by Russian Pavel Vinogradov and American Jeffrey Williams.

Russia celebrates Cosmonauts Day on April 12 to mark the anniversary of the day in 1961 when Yury Gagarin became the first man to travel into space and orbit the Earth on board the Vostok-1 spacecraft.

Images (Brazil"s first astronaut Marcos Pontes)