Azerbaijan's President cancels trip to Putin's Victory Day parade
Photo: Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan (Getty Images)
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, whose visit was awaited by the Kremlin, will not attend the Russian Victory Day parade, Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to Interfax.
"We received the message that, unfortunately, Aliyev will not arrive. They explained that he has to participate in internal events dedicated to Heydar Aliyev (the third president of Azerbaijan and Ilham Aliyev's father)," Ushakov said.
Additionally, Laos' President Thongloun Sisoulith will also be unable to attend the event in Moscow because he is allegedly infected with COVID-19.
The Moscow parade
On May 9, Moscow will host a parade dedicated to Victory Day. It is expected that several dozen leaders, including Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, will attend.
It is important to note that relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have been somewhat tense recently, following the incident where Russia downed an Azerbaijani Airlines plane in its airspace. The plane subsequently crashed in Kazakhstan.
Aliyev demanded accountability for the incident, stating that the blame for the crash lay with Russian representatives.
For more details on how this tragedy may have affected relations between the two countries, read the material by RBC-Ukraine.
