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France riles allies by inviting Russia to D-Day commemoration (www.politico.eu)

submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Vladimir Putin is not on the guest list, but Russian representatives have been invited to take part in WWII anniversary ceremony.

France’s decision to invite Russia to attend the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings has stoked tensions with allied nations as leaders prepare to gather on the Normandy beaches on June 6.

Last month, Paris caught Western countries off guard when D-Day organizers announced they were extending an invitation to Moscow even as Russia launches a fresh offensive on Ukraine. Officials from the United Kingdom and two other World War II allies expressed concerns over the move, raising questions ranging from the symbolic nature of the occasion, protocol issues and queries about diplomatic engagement with Russian representatives.

A U.K. government official said that France’s actions — not only the D-Day invitation but also hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping this month and sending a representative to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration — were “disturbing.”

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[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 67 points 6 months ago

I mean

Remembering old friendships and times we were suffering and struggling together, even if the present day is death and mistrust and we’re enemies, doesn’t seem like the worst thing in the world

To a lot of people the US and the EU have often been the devil man that Russia is today. We can let it go for short periods of time, I think, sometimes.

Just my opinion

[-] FMT99@lemmy.world 50 points 6 months ago

I can appreciate that sentiment but at the same time it'd be hard to swallow if I were Ukrainian and the Russians were at this very moment killing my countrymen while my ally invites them over for tea. It's one thing to let go of the past, quite another to let go of the present.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago

Exactly, totalitarian regimes gain soft power through good faith measures.

[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 5 points 6 months ago

Yeah, maybe so. I'm sorta just playing devil's advocate. My point wasn't that Russia isn't a terrorist state which is visiting pointless destruction on the world at large in a stupid and dangerous way, more that the US has also roamed around the world killing innocent people for a variety of reasons, and we still get to go the Olympics and everything.

(I mean I'm not saying they're the same, and I kind of like that Russia got excluded from some of the friendly people's clubs when they started behaving like a rabid dog. Just, I'm saying maybe extending an olive branch every now and then is okay.)

[-] Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 6 months ago

Sanctioning Russia should take any and all forms until they stop their assault on Ukraine. They've made it clear that they're not acting in good faith, so extending that to them is five steps short of appeasement.

[-] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago

To a lot of people the US and the EU have often been the devil man that Russia is today

Currently are. The average person of the average Arab country right now probably has a worse opinion of the US than they have of Russia, and for good reason. The post-colonial status of France in plenty of countries in West Africa also make a sizable amount of people there hostile to France, even if the situation is more nuanced. Personally, I'm not a fan of any empire.

[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 5 points 6 months ago

Yeah.

Russia invades Ukraine and bombs apartment buildings, it's like hey WTF those are perfectly innocent people

Israel turns the whole of Gaza into a wasteland of corpses and famine and it's like well of course, they're seeing to their security situation, as any country would, here's some bombs my loving brother

I don't think Israel should be allowed at the Olympics either, FWIW

[-] absquatulate@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Western countries' relationship with russia may be more relaxed and allow for making ammends, but for any country in the east there was never a time in the past centuries when russia has not behaved lile a bully. Heck, ask any ww2 survivor in eastern europe and they'll tell you the russian "liberator" soldier was just a pillaging and raping piece of shit, and this was when they were technically not the occupier. And this before you start discussing the horrors of russian communist imperialism. I think its quite justified to think they should not be invited to any ww2 commemorations or allowed to act like they are part of "the good guys".

[-] Miaou@jlai.lu 1 points 6 months ago

Why do any ww2 commemoration if you're not going to invite the country that ended the war at this point ?

[-] 0xb@lemm.ee 0 points 6 months ago

True, but it's not the first time someone has that idea. Germany spent 2 decades appeasing Russia to try to integrate them, and america and NATO basically served their requests after the 2008 invasion of Georgia in an attempt to get them to behave and be a part of the gang. We already know that it means nothing to Putin, we don't need to try this stuff again.

[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

Here's a better idea. Take all living world War vets give them an all expense paid trip there and have the politicians stay home.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Why limit that to just the WW2 vets? Remembrance days are often for all veterans. Often they sacrifice the best years of their lives. Even the logistics and Facilities personnel often have knee, back, and other maladies related to their service.

[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

It’s called d-day commemoration.

But sure why not. Ww2 vets get all expenses paid to get there and the rest are welcome to go but they pay for it by themselves.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

I was referring to other remembeance days like in Canada where it's a memorial day for all veterans

[-] Tryptaminev@lemm.ee 7 points 6 months ago

I am not sure if Macron is trying to play some 5D underwater chess, after talking about sending troops some weeks back, or if he is just a headless chicken running around.

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 3 points 6 months ago

Going headless chicken has always been France's international diplomatic strategy.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

Just invite some Russians with communist leanings. Soviets did it, not rusofascists

[-] Omniraptor@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago

Unfortunately in Russia there are a lot of opportunists who call themselves communists

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Oh good, that’s actually what Stalin was so let them have this one

[-] Omniraptor@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Not defending Stalin but words like opportunist mean things. Remind me when did Stalin support a bourgeois state waging an imperialist war

[-] veganpizza69@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

France is EU’s first importer of ‘Russian nuclear products’: study – Euractiv

French nuclear power under Russian control - Espace Presse Greenpeace France

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

PARIS — France’s decision to invite Russia to attend the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings has stoked tensions with allied nations as leaders prepare to gather on the Normandy beaches on June 6.

Last month, Paris caught Western countries off guard when D-Day organizers announced they were extending an invitation to Moscow even as Russia launches a fresh offensive on Ukraine.

Officials from the United Kingdom and two other World War II allies expressed concerns over the move, raising questions ranging from the symbolic nature of the occasion, protocol issues and queries about diplomatic engagement with Russian representatives.

The organizer of the D-Day commemorations, Mission Libération, which is headed by France’s former ambassador to Washington Philippe Etienne, said last month that Russian representatives would be invited though Putin was persona non grata at the ceremony.

Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP and former U.K. defense minister, defended the move and said if Russia were not invited, then “we would risk blurring the geopolitics of today with the unity of purpose in defeating Nazism in the past.” The Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people during World War II.

Last week, France’s ambassador to Russia Pierre Lévy raised eyebrows when he attended Putin’s fifth presidential inauguration amid a boycott by most Western countries.

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this post was submitted on 17 May 2024

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