Munich Security Conference did not invite Russian government this year
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Russian people walk near a letter Z, installed in Moscow to generate support for the army amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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BERLIN - Russian government officials were not invited to this year’s Munich Security Conference, the man chairing the annual event that brings together the world’s defence and security elite said on Wednesday, in an interview.
The conference, known as “Davos for defence”, will take place in the southern German city on Feb 17-19, days before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We do not want to offer a stage for those who have stamped over international law,” Mr Christoph Heusgen told Reuters.
The Kremlin last year chose not to send a representative in the first no-show in years.
Mr Heusgen, who was long former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign policy adviser, said the aim was nonetheless to get away from an event where Europeans and Americans just spoke among themselves and that more policymakers and experts from emerging economies had been invited this year as a result.
Organisers have not yet published a schedule for the event.
Last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg were among the dignitaries attending the event. REUTERS
