Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit in India next month, the Kremlin has announced.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that travel is currently not on Putin’s agenda because he is concentrating on the special military operation, which is what the Kremlin calls Russia’s war against Ukraine.
But another issue is keeping him at home. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine, something the Kremlin strongly denies.
This means he risks arrest when travelling abroad. Peskov did not mention the warrant in his comments.
Putin did not fly to Indonesia for the summit of the group’s summit last year. He also skipped attending the BRICS summit in South Africa this week and instead took part via video link.
At the summit of the world’s 20 largest economies, to take place on September 9 and 10, India hopes to persuade members to find amicable solutions to geopolitical issues, its G20 summit negotiator Amitabh Kant said on Friday, responding to a query on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Kant said the G20 wants growth but war has created “a huge implication in terms of economics” by bringing challenges regarding food, fuel and fertiliser.
“The war is not our creation,” Kant said. “Our challenge is to put developmental issues right in the forefront.”
