Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin will not personally attend the G20 summit to be held in New Delhi, September 9-10, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced here Friday.
“No, the president has no such plans,” the official ‘Tass’ news agency quoted the Kremlin spokesman as saying. The format of Vladimir Putin’s participation would be determined later, Peskov said.
Vladimir Putin did not personally attend the just-concluded BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. He was represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. President Putin decided against attending the first in-person BRICS summit after Covid-19 as the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March this year over an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.
South Africa is an ICC signatory and was expected to help in Putin’s arrest if he was present in the country.
Even though India and Russia are on good terms, Putin does not want to step out of his territory. Since the beginning of the attack on Ukraine, the Russian president has rarely stepped out of his country. Putin has preferred to attend crucial meetings over video link.
AP