MOSCOW. May 6 (Interfax) - Leaders of almost 30 states will come to Russia for celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.
"Numerous foreign guests have been invited, and we are expecting 29 heads of state we have invited to attend the V-Day parade," Ushakov told the press on Tuesday.
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Abkhazia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, Vietnam, Guinea-Bissau, Egypt, Zimbabwe, China, Congo, Cuba, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Palestine, Serbia, Slovakia, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and South Ossetia will be represented at the summit level, he said.
India, Nicaragua and South Africa will be represented "at a rather high level," he said.
Secretaries general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Union State of Russia and Belarus and the African Union, as well as the New Development Bank president have also been invited to the parade and other celebrations, he said.
"The heads of all diplomatic missions accredited in our country have been invited to the parade. Also invited are the defense ministers of several states, and we are expecting 34 countries to send representatives of their defense ministries here," Ushakov said.
Parade units from 13 countries, including Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Belarus, Egypt, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, will march across Red Square, he said.
Veterans from several countries, among them Armenia, Israel, Mongolia and the United States, are due to attend the parade, he said.