Visit of the PRC leader to Moscow

1 Greece — Germany

The Greek Ambassador in Berlin brought a letter to the German Foreign Ministry in which the Greek government urged Germany to begin the negotiations aimed to resolve the unresolved issue of German military reparations for the damage from the First and Second World Wars. It was presented according to the instructions of the Deputy Foreign Minister, Sii Anagnostopoulou — RIA NEWS reports while citing the Greek Foreign Ministry. In April, the Greek Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution for the government to demand war reparations from Germany in the amount of 309.5 billions of euros for the Second World War, and more than 9 billions of euros for the First World War. Greece estimated the amount of compensation for the deaths and injuries of its people at 107 billions of euros. Germany rejected the demands of Greece. According to the German officials — their country have already fulfilled its obligations when it paid 115 millions of marks back in 1960.

2 Germany — Venezuela Deutsche Bank decided to “take control” over 20 tons of Venezuelan gold due to the non-payment of the loan taken by Caracas — Bloomberg reports. According to the informed sources, back in 2016, the Venezuelan government received a loan of 750 millions of dollars from the Deutsche Bank. Venezuela left 20 tons of gold as a pledge — TASS reports. Due to the omission of the payments — the Deutsche Bank decided to terminate the loan agreement, the due of which would expire in 2021, and “take control” over the gold. In January, the Bank of England refused to return the Venezuelan gold as well.

3 Ukraine

Ukraine plans to confiscate the property of those citizens of the country that received Russian passports, and are still living in Donbas region — RIA NEWS reports. The related bill was introduced to the Ukrainian parliament by the Ukrainian MP Oleg Musiy. Back in April, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that allowed the residents of some parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine to receive Russian passports, in a simplified manner. Later, Kiev threatened to take away the Ukrainian citizenship from those residents of Donbass that apply for the Russian passports. In addition, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, Irina Freese, announced that such residents won’t receive social benefits and pensions as well.

4. Russia

On 5th of June, the Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on a state visit. The visit is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Russia and China. It is expected that at this meeting, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will discuss the issues of the bilateral and international agenda. Including the issue of the denuclearization of North Korea, and the crisis in Venezuela. On 6th and 7th of June, Xi Jinping will head to St. Petersburg, where he will attend the St. Petersburg’s International Economic Forum. It is planned to sign about 30 different documents during his visit. Xi Jinping expressed his confidence that his visit will be productive, «and will boost the dynamic development of Chinese-Russian relations»