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 on Thursday.
“I can confirm that” [o ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros russo] 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 virtually”said the head of protocol at the Russian embassy in Indonesia, Yulia Tomskaya.
The G20 heads of state and government summit is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, November 15 and 16, in the presence of US and Chinese leaders, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, respectively.
Indonesia came under strong pressure from the West to exclude Russia from the summit because of its invasion of Ukraine, but resisted, arguing that the summit’s 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 attend the summit virtually.
The Russian military offensive in Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, has already resulted in more than 13 million people fleeing — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.5 million to European countries — according to the latest UN data, who rank this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (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 responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing political sanctions on Russia.
The UN presented as confirmed, since the start of the war, 6,114 civilians dead and 9,132 injured, stressing that these numbers are far below the actual number.
Source: DN
