MOSVOW, April 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday met with permanent members of the Russian Security Council to discuss preparations for VE-Day celebrations and forthcoming contacts with foreign leaders who would arrive in Moscow to take part in them, president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
"Along with current issues on the domestic and international agenda, participants in the meeting discussed the final phase of preparations for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in WWII, and various international contacts and talks to be held on the sidelines of celebrations," he said.
Earlier, Peskov said about 30 heads of state and government and leaders of international organizations had confirmed their participation in the VE-Day celebrations in Moscow. Thus, Putin will have separate meetings with China’s President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
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Among those who confirmed their presence at the VE-Day celebrations in Moscow are the leaders of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, India, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska (a political entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina), Venezuela, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Macedonia, Mongolia, Cuba, Cyprus, Palestine, Serbia, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speakers of both houses of the Russian parliament - Valentina Matviyenko of the Federation Council (upper hous) and Sergei Naryshkin of the State Duma (lower house), head of the Kremlin administration Sergei Ivanov, Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and his deputy Rashid Nurgaliyev, Minister of Interior Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu, director of the State Security Council Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov and permanent member of the Security Council Boris Gryzlov.