Russian President Vladimir Putin, who skipped the meeting of G20 leaders in September in India, will participate by videoconference in the virtual summit of the Group of Twenty scheduled for Wednesday, Russian state television announced on Sunday.
“Vladimir Putin will participate in the virtual G20 summit,” the Vesti television channel said in a statement specifying the Russian president’s program this week. The channel, however, did not specify in what format the Russian leader would take part.
Targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which accuses him of war crimes for the deportation of Ukrainian children – which Moscow denies – the Russian head of state had also left his Minister of Foreign Affairs , Sergei Lavrov, represented him at the BRICS summit in South Africa last August.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, and even more so since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin very rarely travels abroad, as in China in October, where he spoke with Xi Jinping, his ally for counter what they present together as American hegemony.
At the beginning of October, the Russian president assured that he would not physically go to international summits so as not to “cause problems” for the organizers. India, which is organizing the virtual G20 summit on Wednesday, holds the presidency of the Group of Twenty until the end of November. New Delhi holds close historical ties with Moscow, with Russia remaining India’s largest arms supplier.