RUSSIA SAYS GEORGIA ‘UNINVITED’ TO MAY 9 VICTORY DAY PARADE IN MOSCOW
(RIA Novosti)
April 5, 2010
MOSCOW
Russia has sent no invitation to Georgian military officials to
participate in the May 9 Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square,
a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Monday.
"The invitations were sent to the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) member-states. Georgia is not part of the CIS," Col. Alexei
Kuznetsov told journalists.
The organization includes former Soviet states of Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
Georgia announced its decision to withdraw from the CIS after a
five-day war with Russia over the Georgian breakaway republic of South
Ossetia in August, 2008. The official withdrawal came into effect a
year later, on August 18, 2009.
Relations between Georgia and Russia became tense after the war and
Georgia cut diplomatic ties when Russia recognized South Ossetia and
Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic.
This year’s parade in Moscow to mark the 65th anniversary of the
Soviet victory in WWII will involve more than 10,000 personnel,
160 military vehicles and 127 aircraft.
Other parades will also take place in 18 cities across Russia.
Moscow has also invited members of the anti-Hitler coalition to
take part in the parade on Red Square. The United States, Britain,
and France have confirmed their plans to participate.
Georgia’s Communist Party has denounced the decision by Moscow to
invite NATO countries to the parade saying that it is very important
that "all the brotherly nations," including Georgia, participate in
the event.