Kremlin claims no one was invited to Victory Day parade in Moscow, reveals who "decided to come anyway"

Oleksandr Shumilin - 7 May, 17:42

Vladimir Putin. Photo: RIA Novosti

The Kremlin has claimed that it had not invited any foreign guests to this year's Victory Day celebrations on 9 May. [Victory Day is a Russian holiday commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, celebrated on 9 May – ed.]

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti, citing Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin

Quote: "We deliberately did not invite foreign guests to the celebrations, unlike last year."

Details: According to Ushakov, several foreign leaders decided to attend on their own initiative. The Kremlin website published a list of guests expected to attend the parade.

Among them are:

Badra Gunba, self-proclaimed president of the separatist region of Abkhazia under Russian influence
Alexander Lukashenko, self-proclaimed president of Belarus
Thongloun Sisoulith, President of Laos
Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia
Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia
Alan Gagloyev, so-called "president" of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia (Georgia)
Siniša Karan, President of Republika Srpska.

Background:

Military parades marking Victory Day will not take place in one third of Russia's regional capitals. In another 37 regions, they will be held without military equipment or with other restrictions, while celebrations have been cancelled entirely in at least 15 regions.
On 4 May, Russia's Ministry of Defence unilaterally declared a "truce" for 8 and 9 May and warned that if the Victory Day parade in Moscow on 9 May is "disrupted", it will launch a large-scale missile strike on central Kyiv.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has urged diplomats to evacuate from Kyiv ahead of what she described as a Russian "retaliatory strike on decision-making centres".
Despite the Kremlin's public threats to attack Kyiv again, the European Union said it would not change its position or presence in the Ukrainian capital.

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