Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday before receiving the Iranian president in Moscow on Thursday, continuing his return to the international scene despite Western attempts to isolate him.
Treated as a pariah by the West and targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for the “deportation” of Ukrainian children, Vladimir Putin until then reserved his rare trips abroad to his closest allies.
For example, he was absent from the last major international meetings: the G20 summit in India in September and that of the BRICS in South Africa in August. Mr. Putin explained that he avoided these meetings so as not to “cause problems” for the organizers.
With the failure of the great Ukrainian summer counter-offensive on the front, the absorption of the shock of Western sanctions by the Russian economy and international attention focused on Gaza and Israel, Mr. Putin seems more confident.
“President Putin’s working visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will take place tomorrow. All this will take place in a single day,” Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday.
According to the Kremlin, Mr. Putin will meet President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan in the Emirates to discuss their prospects for cooperation and the situation in the Middle East. In Riyadh, he will be received by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to talk about trade, investments and international politics.
Mr. Peskov confirmed that the Russian president would discuss in particular the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as reductions in oil production within the framework of OPEC+ of which Russia is a member.
Regarding the Middle East, Mr. Putin has been critical of Israel since the start of the war with Hamas, denouncing the humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza and calling for the creation of a Palestinian state. A message that he should hammer home during this trip to the Arab world.
During a virtual G20 summit on this subject at the end of November, he accused the West of showing selective indignation by denouncing his offensive in Ukraine, calling them out on the “extermination of civilians in Palestine”.
Iran, China, Central Asia
Concerning oil, Russia announced last week its intention to strengthen its cut in production at least until the end of March 2024 to “stabilize prices”, in coordination with Saudi Arabia, a powerful partner within the OPEC+, collective bringing together the main exporting countries.
The Kremlin has not indicated whether the Russian president will attend COP28, the international climate conference currently taking place in the Emirates.
After his visit to the Middle East, Vladimir Putin will receive Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi in Russia on Thursday for talks.
“There will be Russian-Iranian talks on December 7,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the dates of the visit.
Mr. Putin visited Iran in July 2022, while the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov was received in Tehran last October for discussions with the leaders of the region.
According to the official Iranian news agency Irna, Mr. Raïssi is going to Moscow at the head of a “high-ranking political-economic delegation”.
“Bilateral issues, including economic interactions, as well as discussions on regional and international issues, particularly the situation in Gaza, will feature high on the agenda of the one-day trip,” added the Iranian agency.
The West accuses Iran of participating in the Russian war effort by supplying it with large quantities of Shahed explosive drones and other weapons, which Russia uses to carry out its campaign of massive bombings of Ukrainian cities.
Before this diplomatic sequence, Vladimir Putin went to China in October, to his ally Xi Jinping, a visit which was an opportunity for the two leaders to display their closeness.
A few days earlier, he had traveled to Kyrgyzstan, an ally of Moscow, for his first trip abroad since the arrest warrant was issued by the ICC.
Between the pandemic and the offensive in Ukraine, Mr. Putin has limited his travel for almost four years.