Vladimir Putin is not on the guest list, but Russian representatives have been invited to take part in WWII anniversary ceremony.
France’s decision to invite Russia to attend the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings has stoked tensions with allied nations as leaders prepare to gather on the Normandy beaches on June 6.
Last month, Paris caught Western countries off guard when D-Day organizers announced they were extending an invitation to Moscow even as Russia launches a fresh offensive on Ukraine. Officials from the United Kingdom and two other World War II allies expressed concerns over the move, raising questions ranging from the symbolic nature of the occasion, protocol issues and queries about diplomatic engagement with Russian representatives.
A U.K. government official said that France’s actions — not only the D-Day invitation but also hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping this month and sending a representative to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration — were “disturbing.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
PARIS — France’s decision to invite Russia to attend the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings has stoked tensions with allied nations as leaders prepare to gather on the Normandy beaches on June 6.
Last month, Paris caught Western countries off guard when D-Day organizers announced they were extending an invitation to Moscow even as Russia launches a fresh offensive on Ukraine.
Officials from the United Kingdom and two other World War II allies expressed concerns over the move, raising questions ranging from the symbolic nature of the occasion, protocol issues and queries about diplomatic engagement with Russian representatives.
The organizer of the D-Day commemorations, Mission Libération, which is headed by France’s former ambassador to Washington Philippe Etienne, said last month that Russian representatives would be invited though Putin was persona non grata at the ceremony.
Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP and former U.K. defense minister, defended the move and said if Russia were not invited, then “we would risk blurring the geopolitics of today with the unity of purpose in defeating Nazism in the past.” The Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people during World War II.
Last week, France’s ambassador to Russia Pierre Lévy raised eyebrows when he attended Putin’s fifth presidential inauguration amid a boycott by most Western countries.
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