Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Russia’s Putin to Meet Iran’s Raisi in Ashgabat on Wednesday


Tue 28 Jun 2022 | 09:01 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

In Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, according to the Kremlin.

Putin is travelling for the first time since the beginning of what Moscow refers to as a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Later on Tuesday, he is anticipated to see Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon in Dushanbe.

Putin will return to Moscow on Wednesday night, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who was speaking to reporters on a conference call.

Advisor of Russian President Yuri Ushakov said President Vladimir Putin had accepted Indonesia’s invitation to participate in the G20 summit.

Ushakov noted that the form of participation was still being determined.

“We have received the official invitation… and we have responded positively, saying we are interested in participating,” the advisor told reporters on Monday.

At the same time, Ushakov found it difficult to answer accurately the question of whether Putin would participate in person or via video, as he said, “The invitation is for participation in person, but here is still a lot of time. I hope that the pandemic will allow this event to be held in person.”

The United States and other Western countries have tried to pressure Indonesia, which chairs the G20 this year, to prevent Russia from participating in the summit to be held on the Indonesian Island of Bali in November.

In response, the Indonesian authorities explained that “the invitation has been sent to Russia and cannot be withdrawn, the G20 summit is studying the economic issues and politics cannot influence its agenda.”

In the same vein, Chancellor Olaf Scholz mentioned that the host country, Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the summit, and the G20 leaders will have eventually to make a decision shortly before travel because world events can change very dramatically by this date.

In the same vein, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had expressed her opposition to a boycott of the G20 summit, even if Putin participated in it.