Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the group of most developed economies (G20) on the Indonesian island of Bali next week, the Russian embassy announced today.
“I can confirm that [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergei Lavrov will lead the Russian delegation to the G20. President Putin’s program is still being worked out, he will be able to participate in a virtual way”, said the head of protocol at the Russian Embassy in Indonesia, Yulia Tomskaya.
The summit of heads of state and government of the G20 is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, November 15th and 16th, with the presence of the leaders of the United States and China, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, respectively.
Indonesia came under strong pressure from the West to exclude Russia from the summit due to the invasion of Ukraine, but resisted, arguing that the summit host country should remain neutral.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country is not a member of the G20, was also invited by Indonesia and is expected to participate virtually in the summit.
Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, launched on February 24, has already caused more than 13 million people to flee – more than six million internally displaced people and more than 7.5 million to European countries – according to the latest UN data, which ranked this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Putin with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the generality of the international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia. .
The UN presented as confirmed, since the beginning of the war, 6,114 dead civilians and 9,132 wounded, stressing that these numbers are far below the real ones.
