(Read the full article at Echo Moscow)

To understand what we are going to talk about now, let’s remember how many leaders in recent years came to Putin for Victory Day.

In 2005, there were 70 leaders, including George W. Bush, François Hollan and Xi Jinping. In 2010, after the Munich speech, there were 24 leaders, including Merkel. In 2015 – 23 leaders, but there was a turning point – there were no major leaders, but there was Mugabe. In 2020, a new change – most of the leaders from the CIS countries, there are no large Western figures at all. And now only Emomali Rahmon from Tajikistan stands next to Putin. Of course, everything can be justified, for example, by the coronavirus, but …
Let’s put it bluntly – Putin has ceased to be an internationally authoritative leader.