Grand Duke to Visit Russia

2007 state visit (Photo: Luc Deflorenne / SIP / Cour grand-ducale)

During a working visit to Moscow today, Luxembourg minister of foreign affairs Jean Asselborn announced that Grand Duke Henri will go on a state visit to Russia in early 2016. I guess that Grand Duchess Maria Teresa won't pass up the chance to see some Russian splendour at the Kremlin either and thus go with her husband. More details about the visit will likely be published in about two years, if we're still around by then, I'm pretty sure we will cover it.

Diplomatic relations between Russia and Luxembourg were established in 1891, a year after Grand Duke Henri's great-great-grandfather Grand Duke Adolph, who was also firstly married to a Russian Grand Duchess, came to the Luxembourgish throne. Curiously, the Grand Duke was already supposed to visit last year - at least according to what his then prime minister said in September 2012 - though unless he managed to fly even under the radar of his own employees and that of the Kremlin, that state visit never happened. Russian president Vladimir Putin, however, visited the Grand Duchy in 2007.

Source: Tageblatt #1, Tageblatt #2, Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg