By Oyintari Ben
The Russian embassy in Indonesia confirmed on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be present at the Group of 20 leaders’ conference taking place in Bali next week.
Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, will represent Putin, according to Yulia Tomskaya, the embassy’s chief of protocol.
Putin is still determining if he will participate electronically in one of the meetings, according to Tomskaya.
Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, other world leaders may have challenged or avoided Putin had he chosen to attend the G20 summit in person. This choice spares Putin the embarrassment.
Western nations and Ukraine put pressure on Indonesia, the G20 host, in the run-up to the event to intensify its denunciations of Moscow and revoke its invitation to Putin for the meeting.
Russian participation in the G20 should end, according to US President Joe Biden, who is attending the summit. Senior members of his administration have left G20 gatherings where Russian delegates are present.
Jakarta, though, has resisted the pressure and tried to maintain its impartiality. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has been invited as a guest to the summit.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine won’t attend the G20 summit if Putin does. He’s expected to participate online in the sessions.
Xi Jinping, the leader of China, is anticipated to attend the meeting and will likely meet Biden for the first time since the American President took office almost two years ago. Xi and Putin previously met in Uzbekistan in September.
