Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev served as Moscow’s high-profile emissary to North Korea for large-scale celebrations of the Workers’ Party (WPK) last week, meeting leader Kim Jong Un and attending a military parade featuring the country’s biggest nuclear missiles.

But Medvedev, the chief of the ruling United Russia party and deputy chairman of the Security Council, was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the Russian presence at the festivities.

Top officials from the defense, foreign and natural resources ministry central to burgeoning ties over the war in Ukraine made the trip to Pyongyang, along with regional