Punishing Putin: EU Leaders Snub Moscow World War II Commemorations

Der Spiegel ^ | April 10, 2015 – 06:35 PM | Christian Neef

[Olog-hai]

On May 9, Russia is holding an enormous military parade to commemorate the end of World War II 70 years ago. With tensions between Russia and the West high, most European Union leaders are staying away from the event. […]

Russia would have liked to showcase the Armata and a host of other military technology to the foreigners who were supposed to be sitting in the VIP stand on May 9. The Kremlin had invited 68 leaders of foreign countries to the victory celebration, including the most important politicians in the Western world. So far, only 25 have accepted Moscow’s invitation. US President Barack Obama will not be attending, nor will British Prime Minister David Cameron or French President François Hollande. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be there, but only on May 10, the day after the parade. TV images from Moscow will illustrate how isolated Russia has become as a result of its policy on Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea.

The bitter news was long kept from the Russian people. Television stations were constantly reporting that more and more foreign leaders would be attending the parade, but then the newscaster would read out the names of the countries they represent, including places like North Korea, Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam. …

[PGR88]

Never underestimate the desire of progressives in the USA and Europe to make meaningless gestures.

meanwhile, EU sanctions against Russia are set to expire in July, as periphery countries like Greece will oppose any continuation of them.

[L,TOWM]

There is a reason for that. Greece should have never been admitted to the EU in the first place and now that the ECB is squeezing every last Euro’d drachma out of them, the Greeks are looking for a new set of friends. The Russians are a lot more palatable to even the more conservative Greeks, now that Eastern Orthodox clerics are not getting thrown into jail.

[Olog-hai]

You don’t understand the EU, then. It’s an empire, and they would have no problem “admitting” Greece if they could squeeze whatever they felt like squeezing out of them. The EU has no legitimacy.

[married21]

This is a conundrum to me— How to give credit and recognition to the Russian people who endured so much in WWII, without making it look like Putin is getting attention and respect.

[DesertRhino]

That’s a tough one. Howzabout you go, only speak of WWII, and how good it was the Nazis were defeated, and simply not address every other dispute for just one day?
Or in this revolutionary socialist era, must every single event be used to advance the current agenda?

I haven’t seen anything the Russians are doing about the 70th to talk about Ukraine. It looks like the celebration is pretty focused on WWII. If they take it in a different direction, then you avoid participating.
Seems pretty simple if you just commemorate the event and leave political agendas out for a day.

[dfwgator]

Stalin was responsible for as many Russian deaths as Hitler.

[grania]

I don't "get" Europe. The real threat is migrants from Northern Africa, radicalized maniacs from the ME, and a loss of cultural identities.

They've got instability in the south. Why are they going out of their way to poke the bear at their north?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The Kremlin promptly retaliated. In late February, it published archive documents intended to prove that Poland had stabbed the Red Army in the back during Europe's liberation. According to the documents, the Polish underground army killed at least 700 members of the Soviet military in Polish territory from the end of 1944 to May 1945.

No mention of Katyn, though.

[henkster]

Well I'm not expecting Merkel to attend. The Germans didn't like the last military parade they attended in Moscow.

But it is a tough question. The Russian people have every reason to be proud of their victory over the Nazi invaders, even if the cost was magnified by the callous indifference of their leadership. And the current leadership is not far from Stalin.

And the Soviet Union did not endear itself to so many European countries they occupied as a result of the war. You can't say "liberated," because it was more the exchange of one oppressive regime for another. The difference was that the Nazis were only there a few years, the Soviets for two generations.

[DesertRhino]

Merkel is doing it well, not going to the parade, but going the day afterwards. I don’t like her that much, but it seems like a good approach.

[Olog-hai]

To provoke European unity in a militaristic sense.

Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.

— Jean Monnet, one of the EU “Founding Fathers”

Too many people do not see the EU in this context, and thus do not realize the danger it can present if precisely that happens.

[henkster]

No mention of Stalin’s Commissars rounding up the surviving Polish Intelligentsia and packing them off to Siberia. No mention of the Warsaw Uprising, where the Red Army sat on their hands outside Warsaw and let the Polish Patriots and Nazis kill each other off.

[dfwgator]

According to the documents, the Polish underground army killed at least 700 members of the Soviet military in Polish territory from the end of 1944 to May 1945.

A Polish soldier comes across a German and a Russian soldier, which does he shoot first? The German of course, business before pleasure.

[henkster]

“With the Germans we lose our country. With the Russians, we lose our souls.”

[McGruff]

On May 9, Russia is holding an enormous military parade to commemorate the end of World War II 70 years ago

Or the start of WWIII.

Check. Your move.

[dfwgator]

Yes, that was also General Anders’ quote to Patton.

[dfwgator]

Stalin had many of the heroes of Leningrad executed, he was always suspicious of the leadership in Leningrad, as it was too remote from Moscow and too ‘independent’ for Stalin’s liking.

[dfwgator]

Shall we also acknowledge that fact that the Soviets started the war with their non-aggression pact and alliance with Hitler?

Hitler does not invade Poland unless Stalin gave him to OK to do so.

[ansel12]

Russia was at least as evil as Germany, they fought Germany because their ally turned on them, rattler against rattler.

We don’t have to pretend that they were a noble good guy, fighting the good fight.