Two princes, a crown prince and a clown prince told to stay home. Peas in a pod.
An excerpt:
The White House is privately furious at the snub.
Boy howdy that's got Vlad shaking in his shoes ...
| It's not private when the Guardian is gossiping about it. talk about rubbing salt in the wound. |
Barack Obama told Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, he was unable to attend but had confidently offered Biden as his replacement. Moscow's diplomatic corps has been abuzz all week with news of Putin's unexpected veto.
Pavel Felgenhaur, a defence analyst and columnist with the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper, said that Putin had personally decided to kick Prince Charles off the list. "It was entirely his decision," he said. Other sources have confirmed the story.
Felgenhaur said the Kremlin was in an uncompromising mood following a string of recent foreign policy successes. These include the overthrow of Ukraine's pro-western government and its replacement by a pro-Russian one, and last month's revolution in Kyrgyzstan, now run by a more Kremlin-friendly administration.
For the first time, troops from Britain, France and the US -- the Soviet Union's wartime allies -- are taking part in the victory parade, marching alongside 10,500 Russian soldiers. More than 25 foreign leaders will attend, including France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel.
But there will be no senior British figure. Both the UK and US will be represented by their respective ambassadors, Dame Anne Pringle and John Beyrle. Pringle hosted a reception on Thursday at the new British residence in Moscow, along with soldiers from the 2nd Company Battalion the Welsh guards who will march in Red Square. |