Merkel has yet to reply to V-day invitation - Russian diplomat
MOSCOW/BERLIN. Feb 10 (Interfax) - Germany has yet to notify Moscow as to whether or not Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to visit the Russian capital on Victory Day, May 9.
"There has been no signal yet on that score and I would not want any second guessing. We still have time," Russian Ambassador to Germany Vladimir Grinin told Interfax on the occasion of the Diplomat's Day.
Asked whether Russia was offended by Merkel saying she had no intention to invite the Russian leader to the G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany, this year, the diplomat said: "As regards the essence of this fact, one should not make problems out of it."
"This is an informal outfit which has been focusing on financial-economic and political topics. With the formation of the G20, all financial and economic issues get exhaustively discussed there. Only political ones are left out. But, as our minister Sergei Lavrov once stressed, the existence of the G8 made sense because it was a venue for discussion for leading Western countries and Russia," he said.
"Which is no longer the case, and through no fault of ours. So, as far as bitter feelings over the Bavaria meeting are concerned, you should rather ask the others," the ambassador said.
