On May 6, 2019 a Book of Condolence was open at the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Moscow for General Le Duc Anh, the former President of Vietnam, who had died aged 99.
General Le Duc Anh was a communist veteran of Vietnam's wars against France's colonial rule and American forces propping up the South, but later presided over the restoration of diplomatic relations with former enemies. In 1975 he marched through Vietnam's former southern capital of Saigon at the head of the parade celebrating the victory of the north, an end of a decade-long war and the country's long dreamed-of reunification.

General Le Duc Anh directed the army sent into Cambodia in 1978 to crush the Pol Pot regime after Khmer Rouge cross-border assaults and massacres of civilian inhabitants. Later on holding the post of the Minister of Defence, he took charge of Vietnam's withdrawal from Cambodia in 1989.
Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia H.E. Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka and Madame Sanja Jayatilleka visited the Vietnamese Embassy to express the heartfelt condolences to the people of Vietnam and pay tribute to the fourth President of Vietnam General of the Army Le Duc Anh, who passed away on April 22, 2019.