Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon will arrive in Moscow for the Victory Day parade. It is noteworthy that it was initially reported that Rahmon planned to take part in the celebration in Dushanbe. However, an hour later, the press service of the President of Tajikistan announced that he was flying to Moscow.
Thus, heads of four countries will come to Moscow this year. All of them received an invitation to the parade from Vladimir Putin. At the same time , his press secretary Dmitry Peskov previously reported that the Kremlin would not send any special invitations, since 78 years since the end of World War II is not a round date.
Last year, not a single world leader was invited to the parade at all. “No one was invited,” Peskov said then, answering a question from journalists. Just like now, he stressed that this is not an anniversary date, and said that May 9 is our holiday, a holy holiday for all Russians.