Putin to make first foreign trips since launching Ukraine war

According to RFE/RL, Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday (26 June), in what would be the Russian leader’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth month, has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and led to severe financial sanctions from the West, which Putin says are a reason to build stronger trade ties with other powers such as China, India and Iran.

PavelZarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian President JokoWidodo for talks in Moscow.

Indonesian President and G20 chairman JokoWidodo will also visit Ukraine to press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

  In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik President ImomaliRakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he will attend a summit of Caspian nations including the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan, Zarubin said.

During the recent St. Peterburg economic forum (SPIEF) the highest-ranking foreign leader attending was the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-JomartTokayev. He however possibly disappointed his host when he made clear, answering a question, that his country would not recognize the so-called “republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Putin’s last known trip outside Russia was a visit to the Beijing in early February, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled a “no limits” friendship treaty hours before both attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games.