towards a diplomatic headache for France?

Russia, but without its president, will be invited to the “D-Day” celebrations in June, in the name of its contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany. On the French side, we remain evasive, especially since the last official contacts with the Kremlin may have been heated.

Joe Biden, Charles III, but not Vladimir Putin. Less than two months before the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, June 8, 2024, the Liberation Mission announced Tuesday April 16 that the Russian president is excluded from the celebrations.

The government mission, which organizes the tribute ceremonies, justifies this choice by “war of aggression“that the Russian head of state is leading in Ukraine.”Given the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to participate in the commemorations of the Normandy landingse”, indicated the organization responsible for the celebrations.

“The Commitment and Sacrifices of the Soviet Peoples”

The fact remains that, like the United States or Great Britain, Russia participated in the Liberation and will be well represented during the “D-Day” celebration. However, the difficult distinction between Russia and the Kremlin is what Emmanuel Macron is working on: the Russian president is not welcome to commemorate the landings, but Russia is. She is “invited to be represented to honor the importance of the commitment and sacrifices of the Soviet peoples“, we say within the executive.

Yes, but with whom? A delegation, with an ambassador, or just a few veterans? On the French side, we remain evasive, especially since the last official contacts with Russia may have been heated. After the attack in Moscow at the end of March, Emmanuel Macron asked his Minister of the Armed Forces to call his Russian counterpart to discuss anti-terrorism. An appeal concluded with Russian accusations of links between France and the attack. Words then qualified as “baroque” And “threatening” by Emmanuel Macron himself.

The precedent of 2019

Vladimir Putin was invited to the 60th anniversary celebrations in June 2004, alongside Jacques Chirac, then to those of the 70th in 2014, despite the annexation of Crimea three months earlier by Russia. However, he was not invited to the 75th anniversary of the “D-Day“, in 2019, when the situation was getting bogged down in eastern Ukraine and relations were already strained heavily with the West. The master of the Kremlin then assured that this was not “absolutely not a problem“. And Moscow had called not to “exaggerate“the importance of the Allied landings, recalling the 27 million Soviet deaths during the Second World War.

In Russia, the memory of the “Great Patriotic War”, the name given to the armed conflict between the USSR and Nazi Germany, remains the source of immense pride and constitutes an essential pillar of the patriotism advocated by the Kremlin.