Obama makes mistake turning down Moscow’s invitation to attend celebrations of Victory Day - Russian lawmaker

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The president of the United States is making a big strategic mistake by turning down Moscow’s invitation to attend celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. This way he openly demonstrates that he puts his ambitions above the globally recognized humanitarian values, Igor Morozov, a member of the international committee of the Federation Council upper house of the Russian parliament, told TASS on Monday. “Obama is making yet another strategic mistake. Turning down the invitation to come to Russia, he has put his personal ambitions in the race for his individual presidential leadership above such great historic date as the 70th anniversary of the coalition’s victory in the Second World War,” he said, adding that the U.S. president would lose much in the eyes of American citizens, the majority of whom “despite different approaches to the history, to the Second World War, share the opinion that this victory brought peace to the world.” Morozov said he was sure other leaders of countries of the anti-Hitler coalition would not follow Obama’s lead. “It would be very sad for Obama if all European leaders come to Moscow to mark this memorable date, like they did in Normandy, when the 70th anniversary of the allied forces' D-Day landing in Normandy was marked in June 2014.” It means that in his “struggle for global leadership” Obama puts not only himself but his country “above the humanitarian values respected across the globe,” the Russian lawmaker said. Read more