The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: DCPatriot on May 09, 2014, 12:27:55 pm
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Putin to face Western leaders at D-Day anniversary
Julie Pace
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Complicating the West's efforts to isolate Russia, the Kremlin announced Thursday that Vladimir Putin will join President Barack Obama and European leaders in France next month for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that hastened the end of World War II.
The June 6 commemoration would mark the first time Putin and Western leaders have come face-to-face since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine. The U.S. and Europe have condemned Russia's provocations, ordering sanctions on Putin's inner circle and cutting Russia's ties to some international organizations.
Still, leaders from Germany and France publicly welcomed Putin's decision to attend the observance at Normandy, raising questions about the effectiveness of recent efforts to ostracize the Russian president over Ukraine. And while the White House said Obama would not meet one-on-one with Putin, U.S. officials did not appear to be seeking to stop him from attending.
"We would not expect France to dis-invite Russia from this historic event commemorating World War II because of what's taking place in Ukraine," White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. "The events in Normandy on June 6 are focused on remembering the sacrifices of all our World War II veterans." Millions of Russian lives were lost in the war against Nazi Germany.
Yet Putin's presence is sure to intrude on, if not overshadow, the commemorations of the Normandy landings by allied forces. Even without a formal meeting between Putin and Western leaders, there will be heightened interest in their interactions, particularly between Obama and Putin, who have a history of tense public encounters.
more at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PUTIN_D_DAY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-08-17-05-44 (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PUTIN_D_DAY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-08-17-05-44)
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I assume the Germans are invited too, because the only Russians around the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, were fighting for the Germans.
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Putin is playing chess while Obama is playing marbles. Historically, the Russians paid the biggest price.Approximately 60 to 85 million, making it the deadliest war in world history in absolute terms of total dead but not in terms of deaths relative to the world population. The higher figure of 85 million includes deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilians killed totaled from 38 to 55 million, including 19 to 25 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead: from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.1993 a study by the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated total Soviet population losses due the war at 26.6 million, including military dead of 8.7 million calculated by the Russian Ministry of Defense. These figures have been accepted by most historians outside of Russia. However the figure of 8.7 million military dead has been disputed by some historians in Russia because it is in conflict with the official database of the Central Defense Ministry Archive (CDMA) which lists the names of roughly 14 million dead and missing servicemen. Some independent researchers in Russia have put total losses in the war, both civilians and military, at over 40 million
http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/ELM-War_Deaths.pdf
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I assume the Germans are invited too
Yep. It's slowly become a day when we celebrate all the veterans, both surviving and dead.