MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin is due to visit China this week as head of a parliamentary delegation, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified
Russian parliament speaker to visit China, Vedomosti
Volodin's Diplomatic Mission to China
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin is due to visit China this week as head of a parliamentary delegation, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified sources.
Details of the Visit
Volodin will visit Beijing and Changchun, the newspaper said.
Historical Context of the Visit
Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to visit China at the end of August and early September for celebrations marking the end of World War Two in China.
World War Two Commemorations
Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender came into force in Europe on May 8, 1945 but in Moscow it was already May 9, which became the Soviet Union's "Victory Day" in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two.
Casualties and Impact
In Asia, World War Two ended on Sept. 2 with the surrender of Japan after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Chinese Communist Party historians say China's casualties in the 1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese War were 35 million.
The Japanese occupation caused the displacement of as many as 100 million Chinese people and significant economic hardship, as well as the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, during which an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 victims were killed.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
