Putin Snubs UK and US over VE Day Parade

Vladimir Putin snubs Britain and US over VE Day celebrations

(The Guardian) – Last week, however, the prince was quietly stood down after Putin made it clear that he did not want him there – apparently in a sign of his continuing annoyance with the UK over its failure to extradite Boris Berezovsky, the Kremlin critic and former oligarch, to Russia.

Putin, Russia’s prime minister, also snubbed Biden, who had planned to go to Moscow and has been left kicking his heels in Brussels. Biden is close to Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s president. During the 2008 Russian-Georgia war Putin famously threatened Saakashvili, pledging to “hang him by the balls”.

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Felgenhaur said the Kremlin was in an uncompromising mood following a string of recent foreign policy successes. These include the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-western government and its replacement by a pro-Russian one, and last month’s revolution in Kyrgyzstan, now run by a more Kremlin-friendly administration.

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