Germany to snub Putin's WWII parade

German chancellor Angela Merkel i has decided to boycott a WWII memorial parade in Moscow on 9 May due to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

Her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, confirmed the decision on Wednesday (11 March), following an initial report in German weekly Die Zeit.

"In view of the Russian actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, participation would seem inappropriate to us”, he said.

He added that she will instead lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Russian capital, together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, on 10 May.

"The chancellor considers it important to mark the joint remembrance of the end of the Second World War and the liberation from Nazism,” Seibert noted.

"The obligation to keep alive this memory and to commemorate the dead exists irrespective of our current differences with Russia and of our clear criticism of Russia's attitude towards and actions in Ukraine.”

The French leader, Francois Hollande i, also won’t be going, but his office cited agenda issues, saying he is needed at a meeting on climate change in the Caribbean island of Martinique.

Other EU states to boycott the 9 May event include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. US president Barack Obama i also said earlier this year that he won’t be going.

The Czech president, a Putin sympathiser, is the only EU head of state to have confirmed attendance at this stage.

Greece, Hungary, and Slovakia have also been invited. They haven’t made public their decisions. But the fact the German leader said No, despite Germany’s historic burden of guilt, makes it easier for others to say No as well.

“It’s an absolutely correct decision”, a diplomat from one Baltic EU country told EUobserver i.

“Especially if you consider that some of the soldiers in the 9 May military parade in Moscow are likely to have taken part in Russia’s campaign in Crimea and in east Ukraine.”

The German and US snubs highlight to what extent Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has poisoned relations.

Merkel went to the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII in May 2010, when British and US troops also walked alongside Russian soldiers. In 2005, the then US president, George W. Bush, sat alongside Putin at the event.

US lists Dugin

For its part, the US on Wednesday extended its Russia blacklist by 14 names, including Russian nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, several Russian agents in occupied east Ukraine and Crimea, and a handful of former Ukrainian regime members.

It also listed two entities: Russian National Commercial Bank and The Eurasian Youth Union, a pseudo-NGO which, the US says, recruits fighters for the east Ukraine offensive.

The Department of Treasury said the reason for the listing is Russia’s violation of the “Minsk” ceasefire accord in its recent assaults on the Ukrainian cities of Debaltseve and Mariupol.

“If Russia continues to support destabilising activity in Ukraine and violate the Minsk agreements and implementation plan, the already substantial costs it faces will continue to rise”, Adam J. Szubin, a senior US treasury official, said.

EU ambassadors also on Wednesday, in Brussels, agreed to extend for six months the Union’s list, which covers 150 individuals and 37 entities. The list previously covered 151 people, but one of them is now deceased.

EU leaders at a summit next week are to discuss what to do about economic sanctions, which expire in July.

An EU diplomatic source said the most likely outcome is to extend the measures for six months, but not to add fresh ones.

He said the European Commission and the EU foreign service have finalised proposals for a new raft of economic sanctions. But these are unlikely to be imposed unless there is major escalation, such as a Russian attempt to take the city of Mariupol.