As London braces for the influx of foreign dignitaries and diplomats in respect of the ongoing royal, state burial of the late Queen Elizabeth II, many have wondered who will be gracing the occasion with their presence.

The US President Joe Biden made it clear to reporters that he’d be there in person to pay his last respect to the Queen. However, he added that he wasn’t in the known about the details of the ceremony.

“I don’t know what the details are yet but I will be going,” Biden said in Ohio.

Putin dismisses any plans to attend

On the other side of the aisle, Vladimir Putin brushed off any notion that he’d attend the Queen’s state burial. Perhaps he is preoccupied with the war in Ukraine at the moment.

Although the Russian strong man had expressed his sympathies to King Charles III, the royal family and the British people, the current relationship between Russia and UK is not encouraging to brood any diplomatic visit like this one.

Attending the occasion would also lock his eyes with other diplomats mostly from ‘unfriendly’ nations like the United States and the European Union. 

The State-owned TASS news agency reported the Kremlin spokesman,  Peskov, of discarding any notion that such a decision was even being considered.

According to Peskov, he did not believe that the Queen Elizabeth II had a particular place in the hearts of Russians.

“She was treated with great respect in Russia, just like throughout the rest of the world, for her wisdom, and for her global authority,” Such qualities are lacking nowadays on the international stage,” Peskov said

Like Biden, Peskov also believed the royal court was yet to announce who could attend the ceremony.

Putin had earlier snubbed Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral rites

Vladimir Putin snubbed the funeral of ex-Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow. The Russian President claimed he couldn’t attend the final funeral rites of the last leader of the Soviet Union due to ‘scheduling constraint‘.

Putin accuses Mikhail Gorbachev of having collapsed the Soviet Union. The former Soviet leader was denied a State burial by the Kremlin. Putin believes ex-Soviet States shouldn’t have been allowed to secede. He calls the collapse of the Soviet Union the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century‘.

With London and Moscow locked on opposite sides of the ailse over the Ukraine war, it is understandable why Putin has decided not to attend the funeral rites of the late Queen Elizabeth II.