Russian Duma Chief Volodin Heads to Pyongyang for 80th Liberation Anniversary

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s State Duma and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, will lead a parliamentary delegation to Pyongyang on 14–15 August to take part in events marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, according to statements from both Moscow and North Korean state media. The trip, at the invitation of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, underlines the accelerating rapprochement between the two countries. Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defence pact in 2024, and Western officials say Pyongyang has since supplied ammunition and even deployed a contingent of troops alongside Russian forces in Ukraine’s Kursk region, though Moscow says those soldiers were returned home in April. Volodin’s delegation could meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, echoing the high-level contacts that accompanied President Putin’s visit to Pyongyang last year. The visit comes as Moscow seeks additional international backing amid its war in Ukraine and as North Korea looks to strengthen economic and security ties in the face of longstanding UN sanctions.