Estonia has not received invitation to attend Victory Day Parade in Moscow
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Välisministeerium) and the Office of the President of the Republic of Estonia (Vabariigi Presidendi Kantselei) have not received an invitation from Moscow to participate in this year's Victory Day parade.
Press representatives for the foreign ministry and the Office of the President told ERR on Friday the Russian Federation has not yet extended an official invitation to the Victory Parade.
Last year Estonian ambassador to Russian Margus Laidre attended the event
The 75th Victory Day Parade is held annually on May 9, but was delayed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will now take place on June 24 because on that day in 1945, the first Victory Parade was held on Red Square in Moscow.
Russian authorities and President Putin have recommended people follow the parade on TV because the risk of COVID-19 infection has not disappeared.
While Victory Day has remained very important in Russia, it has lost its meaning in the former Soviet republics which joined the European Union in 2004. Instead, the three Baltic States, together with the rest of the EU, now celebrate Europe Day on May 9.
ERR News wrote on Thursday that the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Russian ambassador to Estonia regarding a State Duma initiative to revoke the resolution adopted by the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union on December 24, 1989 which unanimously condemning the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols which divided Europe into spheres of influence in 1939.
On Friday, foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's interpretation of the status of Estonia and the other two Baltic States during World War II, coinciding with those countries' marking the 79th anniversary of Soviet deportations to Siberia.
Putin wrote in an article for the National Interest that the Baltic states were incorporated into the Soviet Union on a contractual basis, with the consent of democratically elected local authorities, which Reinsalu called a completely false statement.
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste