Russian parliament speaker to visit China, Vedomosti says

Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin will travel to China this week leading a parliamentary delegation, newspaper Vedomosti reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

According to the publication, Volodin’s itinerary includes visits to Beijing and Changchun. His trip comes ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s planned visit to China at the end of August and early September for commemorations marking the conclusion of World War Two in Asia.

Nazi Germany’s surrender took effect in Europe on 8 May, 1945, though in Moscow it was already 9 May-a date that became the Soviet Union’s “Victory Day” in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, during which the country lost an estimated 27 million people.

In Asia, the conflict ended on 2 September, 1945, following Japan’s surrender after the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Chinese Communist Party historians estimate that 35 million Chinese were killed during the 1937–1945 Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Japanese occupation displaced up to 100 million people in China, inflicted widespread economic hardship, and included atrocities such as the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which between 100,000 and 300,000 people were killed.

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