(Brasilia) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro left his country on Monday for Russia, where he is expected on Tuesday, for a controversial visit in the midst of the Ukrainian crisis.
Posted at 8:45 p.m.
Brasilia at the same time tried to reassure Kiev via a telephone conversation between Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos França and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
Mr. França “listened to the update on the situation on the border between Ukraine and Russia made by his counterpart”, and “reiterated the Brazilian position in favor of a peaceful solution”, indicated the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs foreign.
Despite rising tensions in Ukraine, President Bosonaro confirmed this visit, which Washington was unable to prevent and whose timing aroused questions and perplexity.
For analysts, the far-right president’s trip – who is also due to visit his ally Viktor Orban’s Hungary on Thursday – could hardly have come at a worse time, and responds to domestic political concerns.
Mr. Bolsonaro replied that his country, a major agricultural producer and exporter, “depends largely on fertilizers from Russia”, to justify this trip centered on bilateral themes such as agriculture, energy or defense.
The invitation launched by Moscow at the end of November, when tensions were already setting in, will therefore be honored despite the specter of war: the Brazilian president should be received in the Kremlin on Wednesday by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a “strong man which he admires.
Westerners and Moscow spoke on Monday of a chance for a diplomatic outcome to avert the risk of war in Ukraine, the United States believing that Vladimir Putin had not made his “final decision” on the outbreak of an invasion.
In a context of heightened tensions, however, Washington tempered this hope by saying that Moscow had further strengthened its military capabilities over the weekend on the borders of Ukraine, where more than 100,000 soldiers have been massed for weeks.