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Belarusian president to visit Moscow May 7-8 for Victory Day celebrations

No one but him can inspect the parade under the constitution

© TASS/Mikhail Metzel

MINSK, April 18. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Saturday he plans to take part in celebrations in Moscow on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Second World War on May 7-8 and then return home to attend the Victory Parade in Minsk on May 9.

"On May 9, I will be in Minsk, we have our own Victory Parade like in Moscow. It’s inadmissible when the commander-in-chief is absent. No one but him can inspect the parade under the constitution," Lukashenko told journalists.

Alexander Lukashenko does not support those politicians who have refused to visit the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9.

"I do not support the politicians who ambitiously turned down an invitation to visit Moscow though had promised," Lukashenko said replying a TASS correspondent’s question.

The Belarussian president noted that Western leaders could have various reasons for refusing to come to Moscow.

"If commemorative events are held in their countries, we would only welcome it and we would rejoice that they mark Victory Day together with us," he said. "But if it is a sort of attack on Russia, on the Soviet people and the people of Eastern Europe who we liberated, then it is not just against Russians who are allegedly fighting in Donbass and have occupied Ukraine, as they say, and this approach is wrong.".

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