EU and Russian leaders should avoid turning WWII commemorations into quarrels over Ukraine

A number of commemorative events were planned for May 2015 to mark the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Marco Siddi writes that while the EU and Russia have both participated in previous commemorations, the Ukraine crisis has made joint events unlikely to take place in 2015. He argues that both sides should avoid linking the occasion to Ukraine as they have little to gain from political disputes spilling over into the field of history.

EurActiv reported on the 6 May 2015 that Russian Ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, had suggested that the EU leaders who had decided not to attend the 9 May celebration of the allied victory in World War II in Moscow were offending his country, who, in his opinion, had made the greatest sacrifice to defeat Nazism.

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