Vladimir Putin will not go to the G20 summit in Indonesia next week because his schedule does not allow it, assured the Kremlin on Friday, this absence being perceived as a sign of isolation in full military intervention in Ukraine.
“This decision (not to come) was taken personally by the Head of State, it is linked to his agenda and the need for him to be in Russia,” the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov.
Mr. Peskov clarified that Vladimir Putin did not plan to send a message by videoconference to the participants of the G20 either.
The day before, the Kremlin had indicated that Moscow’s delegation to Indonesia would be led by the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, who is also due to go to a summit of the Association of South Asian Nations this weekend. Southeast (ASEAN) in Cambodia.
The announcement of Vladimir Putin’s absence came after several months of uncertainty over the visit of the Russian president to the summit of heads of state and government of the G20, organized on November 15 and 16 by Indonesia.
This absence from the most important gathering of world leaders since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the growing isolation of Moscow on the international scene caused by the entry of its troops into Ukraine at the end of February.