The Guardian reports that Western top leaders are going to snub the commemoration in Moscow of the 70th Anniversary of the Allied Victory over Hitler Germany – on May 9.
That they don’t want to attend a huge military parade is quite understandable, neither would I.
But remembering the more than 20 million Russians who died in World War 2 would be more than appropriate for Western leaders in light of both their own people and the Russian people. Thus Angela Merkel is doing the right thing.
This would have been a good informal opportunity for dialogues between Russian, Eastern and Western leaders in this particularly tense situation – but the latter are so much better at escalation, pinpricking and self-righteous policies than at conflict-resolution and reconciliation. Short-sighted and utterly unhelpful, I must say.
