A Russian official said it was “deeply immoral” that the UK snubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin – and any form of Russian representation – from invitations to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral next week over the war in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that the British Foreign Office informed the Russian Embassy in London that it “will refrain from sending invitations to the Russian party, including the leadership of the Russian Embassy, for the funeral events of the death. of Queen Elizabeth II”. “The British cited the ongoing Russian special military operation in Ukraine as a pretext for this step,” Zakharova continued in the statement. The Queen died on September 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, ending her unprecedented 70-year reign as head of the British monarchy. He was 96 years old. The funeral will be held on Monday, September 19, at London’s Westminster Abbey, in front of family members, heads of state and world leaders — excluding Putin. A British official told CNN that representatives from Belarus and Myanmar would also not be invited. Earlier this week, the Kremlin said the Russian president never intended to attend the funeral in response to initial reports he had not been invited. “We consider this British attempt to use a national tragedy that has touched the hearts of millions of people around the world for geopolitical purposes to clean up our country’s days of mourning as deeply immoral,” Zakharova said in the statement, adding that snubbing was “blasphemous to the memory of Elizabeth II.” After the queen’s death last week, Putin sent a telegram to King Charles III expressing his condolences on the death of his mother, wishing him “courage and perseverance in the face of this heavy, irreparable loss.” He wrote: “For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as power on the world stage.”
