Leaders and dignitaries from around the world have been invited to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, but representatives from three countries, Russia, Belarus and Myanmar, have all been left off the invitation list.
Among those attending will be Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska.
According to a senior British government source, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not invited to the late monarchs funeral because of his invasion of Ukraine.
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Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described the decision as “profoundly immoral” and “blasphemous”. She called the snub as an “attempt to use the national tragedy for geopolitical purposes”.
Zakharova said “We view this British attempt to use a national tragedy that has touched the hearts of millions of people around the world for geopolitical purposes to settle scores with our country during the days of mourning as profoundly immoral”
“This is especially blasphemous to the memory of Elizabeth II, who is known to have served during World War II in the territorial defence ranks of the British Armed Forces fighting the Nazis”
Zakharova went on to say that the late monarch did not interfere with politics and so they should not play a part in the invitation list.
“The unifying image of Queen Elizabeth II, who has not interfered with politics as a matter of principle during her reign, has not become an obstacle to London’s dissenting attacks, which are subject to accomplishing their own conjectural objectives” she said.
“For our part, we express our profound condolences to the British people for the great loss that befell them.”
