Vladimir Putin will not attend a gathering of world leaders from the G20 nations in Indonesia next week, Indonesian and Russian officials confirmed, avoiding the platform where he would face western leaders for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is set to lead the Russian delegation at the two-day G20 summit in Bali, beginning 15 November.
Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the chief of support for G-20 events, told reporters in Denpasar, Indonesia, said Mr Putin explained his absence from the summit to the Indonesian president Joko Widodo and confirmed that Mr Lavrov will be present on his behalf.
“The Indonesian government respects the decision of the Russian government, which President Putin himself previously explained to President Joko Widodo in a very friendly telephone conversation,” said Mr Pandjaitan, who is also the coordinating minister of maritime and investment.
Yulia Tomskaya, the chief of protocol in Moscow’s embassy in Indonesia, also said President Putin’s programme was still being worked out and “he could participate virtually”.
Responding to the announcement, Mr Widodo said: “We hope that the good communication between the two leaders can reduce tensions between Russia and Ukraine.”
A host of world leaders, including US president Joe Biden and Chinese president Xi Jinping, are due to attend the biggest of the three summits being held in Southeast Asia this week and next.
It would have put the Russian leader in confrontation with western leaders who have called out his invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Biden, who called Putin a “war criminal”, had previously said that he had no intention of meeting the Russian president at the summit if he attended.
Mr Biden will attend ASEAN and the G-20 while vice president Kamala Harris will travel to APEC. He is expected to have a meeting with Mr Xi in Bali.
It is the second time in a row that the Russian President is giving a miss to the G20 annual summit. Mr Putin did not attend the summit in Italy last year amid the Covid crisis.
It also comes as Downing Street said British prime minister Rishi Sunak, backed by British allies, could use the upcoming G20 summit to “confront” Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine. The spokesperson for the prime minister said that Mr Sunak believed that “it would be right that collectively with our allies we confront any Russian official” who would attend the summit.
Mr Putin‘s decision to withdraw comes as Russia’s forces in Ukraine suffered significant failures. On Tuesday, Russia’s military said it will withdraw from Kherson, which is the only Ukrainian regional capital it captured and a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
The withdrawal from Kherson and potential stalemate in fighting over the winter is expected to provide both countries an opportunity to negotiate peace, army general Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.
Mr Lavrov walked out of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali in July after officials roundly criticised Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in their speeches.
He said Russia will “not chase after the US for talks” after Antony Blinken snubbed the Kremlin’s top diplomat at the summit.
He remained absent from the addresses of German and Ukrainian diplomats, and walked out of events after hearing jeers of “when will you stop the war?” and “why don’t you stop the war?” from the media.
