"The reaction of the Russian leadership is obvious - it is calm, but with a touch of perplexity," Mr. Yastrzhembsky announced on Saturday in an interview with TV Channel Russia during the Zerkalo (the Mirror) program.
The Russian president's special envoy pointed out that any country has a sovereign right to decide whether its leader should visit a particular country to attend certain events.
"Their refusal will certainly not spoil the celebrations," Mr. Yastrzhembsky stressed.
He also emphasized that Russia does not attempt to neglect the crimes of the Stalin regime, "whose victims include also citizens of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia."
"However, we cannot agree with the attempts to compare Russia to Nazi Germany and completely ignore a great role the Soviet Union played in the liberation of the world from Nazi threat," The Russian president's special envoy emphasized.
Mr. Yastrzhembsky pointed out that by refusing to come to Moscow, the leaders of Lithuania and Estonia "have missed a historical opportunity." He said that, inviting the leaders of Baltic states, the Russian leadership had planned to conduct a meeting in "a three on one" format (Russia on one side, and leaders of Baltic states on the other) during their visit.
"One of the results of such a meeting could have been signing of agreements on delimitation of mutual borders between Russia and Estonia and Russia and Lithuania," Mr. Yastrzhembsky underlined.
