“Given the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to take part in the commemorations of the Normandy landings,” they said according to the French newswire AFP.
A Russian delegation, however, was invited, though organizers were not specific about who precisely would be among the Russian invitees. The ceremony will honor “those who stood up, those who suffered, and those who fought and liberated,” according to organizers.
In June 1944, allied troops stormed the German-held beaches in Normandy at the beginning of a land invasion of continental Europe which ended with victory over the Nazis in 1945. The Soviet Union fought Adolf Hitler’s forces on the eastern front for years, gradually pushing them back before also reaching Berlin.
It’s not the first time Putin has been snubbed by a similar event. He was not invited to the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, where figures including Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Angela Merkel and Donald Trump were in attendance.
At the time, Putin made it known that he didn’t care. Honest.
“Why should they always invite me everywhere? What am I, an operetta general? I’ve got enough to do here, it’s absolutely not a problem,” he told news agencies, according to Le Figaro.
