BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping left Beijing on Wednesday for a state visit to Russia and the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War in Moscow, at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation.

Xi's entourage includes Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and foreign minister.