A celebration hijacked by politics
Eastern approaches 2014-09-04
Summary:
FIFTY frail Slovak octo-and-nanogenerians, their uniform jackets adorned with shiny medals, sat patiently in the sun on August 29th through speeches and performances (pictured). Seventy years ago, these men and women joined a bloody uprising against the Nazi occupiers. But the event that should have been a celebration of their bravery was hijacked by politics.
Shortly before leaving office in mid-June, the former Slovak president, Ivan Gašparovič, invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin to join the ceremony. After all, some 140,000 Red Army troops lost their lives when liberating former Czechoslovakia from the Nazis, said those who defenders the invitation, which was made after Russia annexed Crimea.
Mr Gašparovič left what Slovak media described “a time bomb” to his successor, Andrej Kiska. A day after a pro-Russian separatist leader said that Russian soldiers preferred to spend their holidays fighting in Ukraine, Mr Putin sent his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to represent him at the Slovak National Uprising celebration, held at a museum dedicated to the rebellion in the central Slovak city of Banská Bystrica....Continue reading