The Kremlin said on Monday that the heads of state of Russia’s traditional allies had been invited to take part in World War II Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, a reversal of Moscow’s stance in just a week.

“We are very much looking forward to the heads of states of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) sharing this holiday with us. This is the solidarity of the heads of state, whose peoples as part of a single country participated in the Great Patriotic War and won,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov, quoted by TASS on Monday evening.

He drew attention to the “special significance” of Victory Day for all those who were involved in the “victory over fascism” in the Great Patriotic War, as the Second World War is called in Russia.

“We have no right to forget May 9. May 9 is a holy day for all states that were once part of the Soviet Union, states that gave so many lives of their citizens to rid the world of fascism,” he said.

“It is important every time to persistently attract the attention of the whole world” to this date, “every time to remember it, to pay tribute to veterans,” emphasized the spokesman of President Vladimir Putin.

“And, of course, this year is also particularly important because one way or another we are still dealing with manifestations of Nazism,” he said, referring to the fact that Moscow still says it aims to “denazify” Ukraine. like Putin claimed in his declaration of war against a neighboring country.

Russia has changed its mind about invitations to the Victory Day celebration

Peskov’s new comments came after he announced exactly a week ago that Russia would not invite foreign heads of state or government to its traditional May 9 military parade.

“There were no special invitations this year,” he said last Monday, justifying the absence of foreign heads of state by the fact that there would be no important anniversaries this year.

Last year, not a single international guest took part in the Moscow parade in the context of a “special forces operation” launched by Putin that frightened even Russia’s traditional allies.

This year, holidays in the border regions and on the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia, were mostly canceled for security reasons.

Which of the heads of foreign states will take part in the parade on May 9

At the beginning of last month, the Kremlin announced that only the president of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, Sadar Japarov, who will be in Moscow on a working visit, will take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

But this Monday, Russian state media announced that two more heads of state had confirmed they would attend the festivities, and, as Peskov himself said, invitations had been extended to Moscow’s other allies.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will attend Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on Tuesday, after only one head of allied Russia previously announced his presence at the celebration.

Ruslan Zheldibai, the spokesman of President Tokayev, said that the Kazakh leader will visit Russia on May 8-9 on an official visit in honor of Victory Day in World War II, and will also visit the memorial to Soviet soldiers in Rzhev, where one of his uncles died and was buried during “Great Patriotic War”.

“The head of state will also visit the mass grave in the village of Trubino, where his uncle Kasym Boltayev is buried. About 22,000 soldiers and officers recruited from Kazakhstan took part in the Battle of Rzhev,” Zheldibai said.

Earlier on Monday, Russian state media announced that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had also accepted Putin’s invitation to travel to Moscow for the Victory Parade, despite unprecedented tensions between Russia and his country over Moscow’s refusal to intervene in the conflict with Azerbaijan.

Who did Vladimir Putin call to Moscow?

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization created after the collapse of the USSR, includes 9 of the 15 former Soviet federative republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The exceptions are the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as 2 states that left the organization: Georgia in 2009 and Ukraine in 2018.

Turkmenistan has been an associate member since 2005, and its president, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, attended the group’s latest informal meeting of leaders, where Vladimir Putin presented participants with gold rings.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu does not participate in CIS summits, being the only head of state of the organization to whom Moscow did not send greetings on the occasion of Victory Day this year.

“Vladimir Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia (the last two are separatist entities from Georgia – no), as well as to the people of Russia. Georgia and Moldova on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the Victory in the Great War for the Defense of the Motherland,” the Kremlin press service reported on Monday.

In his message, Putin spoke of the “moral obligation” of the CIS states to preserve the “traditions of friendship and mutual support.”

• Related: “Unprecedented nervousness” in Moscow and the paranoia of Wagner’s mercenaries loom over Victory Day, Vladimir Putin’s event of the year

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