Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin is expected to travel to China this week at the head of a parliamentary delegation, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified sources.
Volodin is scheduled to visit Beijing and Changchun as part of his trip, which comes shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s planned state visit to China at the end of August and early September. Putin’s visit will coincide with commemorations marking the end of World War Two in Asia.
The upcoming events hold deep historical resonance for both countries. While Nazi Germany’s surrender in Europe was marked on May 8, 1945, celebrated a day later in Moscow as “Victory Day”, the war in Asia concluded on September 2, 1945, following Japan’s surrender after the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
China, which endured the brutal Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, suffered an estimated 35 million casualties, according to Chinese Communist Party historians.
The Japanese occupation displaced as many as 100 million people and inflicted immense economic hardship. One of the war’s darkest chapters, the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, left between 100,000 and 300,000 victims dead.
Volodin’s visit is seen as part of ongoing efforts to deepen parliamentary and political ties between Moscow and Beijing ahead of Putin’s high-profile participation in the commemorations.
Written By Rodney Mbua
