March 29, 2024

The global coronavirus pandemic has forced governments of all states to focus on solving their internal problems, primarily related to reducing the morbidity of a dangerous virus. Although the pandemic posed a number of serious challenges, it also provided world leaders with the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and resolve one extremely uncomfortable dilemma in quite an elegant manner. The heads of states and governments may now, under a specious excuse of the epidemic, refuse to invite Putin to come to celebrations on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory in WWII.
In early March, representatives of the US president have already informed Kremlin that Trump would not be able to arrive in Moscow to participate in the Victory Day parade, as far as he would be too busy with the election campaign, which is very difficult. Now, in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic in the United States, the situation has become even more complicated.
Inability of the American leader to visit Moscow means Washington’s demonstrative refuse from a “big deal” imposed on him in order to redistribute the world into the zones of influence similar to that one which determined the post-war world structure following the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in 1945.
V. Putin and his environment are accustomed to the mode of living and thinking determined by the bipolar logic of the Cold War, unless Kremlin recognizes another global player — China. That is Vladimir Putin, who exerts his best efforts to preserve the remnants of the former greatness of the Red Empire, who has a golden dream to sit at a stylish marble table together with D. Trump, E. Macron, Xi Jinping and other world leaders, stately playing out the regions of the planet: we will leave Syria to Turkey, Georgia to Russia, and Libya to France; Moldova will go to Russia, Venezuela — to the USA, Ukraine — to Russia etc. Notwithstanding all the internal political transformations occurring in the USA in recent years, the US establishment, neither in the age of the Obama administration, nor under the rule of current Trump’s team, made a “big deal” with the Kremlin. In fact, Washington does not recognize Russia as a world leader, stressing that its total GDP is less than the GDP of a single US state of California.
So far, UN Secretary General A. Guterres, French President E. Macron, and leaders of the traditionally Kremlin-friendly though not particularly influential states, such as the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Serbia, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, India, Cuba and Venezuela have confirmed their visit to Moscow. The main intrigue for today is the Federal Chancellor of Germany A. Merkel and the Prime Minister of Great Britain B. Johnson’s decision as regards visiting Moscow.
Generally speaking, a short while ago the European leaders, who received an invitation from permanent Russian leader Putin to come to Moscow to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, were in a rather uncomfortable position. On the one hand, they ought to honor the memory of those perished and, especially, the soldiers who fought against Nazism. It’s a known fact: there was a tacit agreement within the anti-Hitler coalition: the USA provides huge material and technical resources through Lend-Lease program, the British Empire and its Allies pull away the navy and aircraft of the Third Reich, while the USSR supplies “cannon fodder” to fight Nazism. Therefore, paying the tribute to the memory of millions of dead soldiers of the Soviet Red Army, naturally, would be the proper political gesture from the European leaders.
On the other hand, it is aggressive foreign policy of Russia, its gross and repeated violation of international law, demonstrative homicides of Kremlin enemies on the streets of London, Berlin and other cities, cynical redrawing of the own Constitution with the obvious intention to legitimize somehow the extension of V. Putin’s authoritarian rule.
All this, by no means contributed to the painful search by European politicians for a solution that would allow them to refuse the Kremlin invitation saving the face of the hater of the Nazi regime and a friend of the Russian people while not angering the unpredictable Putin’s comrade with a “nuclear suitcase” in his hands.
The latter, by the way, in a recent TV interview “20 Questions to V. Putin” to the question whether the arrival of foreign leaders in Moscow on May 9 is important for him, replied bluntly, “It doesn’t matter at all. This is our grand occasion.” In fact, the President of the Russian Federation was cunning — he is sorely in need of a “Kremlin photo session” to demonstrate both the internal electorate and the enemies of Moscow that international isolation of the Russian Federation is in past and odious figures from the top echelon of Russian politics are currently “handshakeable”.
However, since the last month has not only worsened the epidemiological situation in various states, but completely changed the reality, both French President E. Macron, British Prime Minister B. Johnson, German Chancellor A. Merkel, and other politicians can refer to the problems caused by the pandemic with a clear conscience, and refuse V. Putin in visiting Moscow to attend the 9th of May military parade.

In fact, anticipating the refuse, Putin has already proposed to organize a summit in Moscow which shall gather the leaders of the Russian Federation, China, USA, France and Great Britain — five permanent members of the UN Security Council — to discuss current challenges and threats. Again, this time the coronavirus pandemic is the main challenge to the world community, and to tackle this specific disease and other potential epidemics there is no need to convene a summit of the “nuclear club” states. On the contrary, the voice of the states with developed economies and advanced medicine now are the most important, and Russia cannot associate itself with such states.

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