Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
Russia is reissuing invitations to international leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron to attend a massive military parade in Moscow on June 24, according to a foreign ministry official on Thursday.
On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has passed its peak of novel coronavirus infections and ordered World War II victory parade postponed by the pandemic to be held next month.
Alexey Paramonov, head of the ministry’s Europe department, told RIA Novosti news agency, “Repeat invitations will be sent to all participants, including the president of France”.
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While referring to the first victory parade in Red Square after Germany’s surrender to Soviet commanders on May 9, the Russian leader said, “We will do it on June 24, the day the legendary historic victors’ parade took place in 1945”.
After peaking in mid-May at more than 11,000 new cases per day, the number of daily infections has dropped below 9,000.
Russia has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases across the globe, only behind the United States and Brazil.
The exponential surge in COVID-19 cases forced the Russian President to postpone the parade but he had promised that the nation will celebrate it on a “grand scale”.
Russian authorities have been easing lockdowns despite the high number of infections, though tough restrictions remain in place in hard-hit Moscow until at least May 31.
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