Vladimir Putin to make first foreign trip since Ukraine invasion

Putin’s final identified go to exterior Russia was to Beijing in early February, the place he and Chinese language President Xi Jinping unveiled a ‘no limits’ friendship treaty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu experience a ship throughout a fishing journey in 2017 [Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via Reuters]

Vladimir Putin will go to two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week in what could be the Russian chief’s first identified journey overseas since ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state tv station, mentioned Putin would go to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan after which meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow.

In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon, an in depth Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he'll attend a summit of Caspian nations together with the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan, Zarubin mentioned.

Putin’s final identified journey exterior Russia was a go to to Beijing in early February, the place he and Chinese language President Xi Jinping unveiled a “no limits” friendship treaty hours earlier than each attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Video games.

Russia’s February 24 invasion has killed 1000's of individuals, displaced hundreds of thousands extra, and led to extreme monetary sanctions from the West, which Putin says are a purpose to construct stronger commerce ties with different powers equivalent to China, India and Iran.

Russia says it despatched troops into Ukraine to degrade its neighbour’s navy capabilities, hold it from being utilized by the West to threaten Russia, root out nationalists, and defend Russian audio system in jap areas.

Ukraine calls the invasion an imperial-style land seize.

Russian President Vladimir Putin relaxes after fishing in southern Siberia [Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via Reuters]

Jackets off?

World leaders, in the meantime, mocked Putin’s tough-guy picture at a Group of Seven (G7) lunch in Germany on Sunday, joking about whether or not they need to strip right down to shirtsleeves – and even much less.

“Jackets on? Jackets off? Will we take our coats off?” United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested as he sat down on the desk in Bavaria’s picturesque Elmau Citadel, the place German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was internet hosting the summit of seven highly effective democracies.

The leaders – from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, america and the European Union – contemplated the dilemma.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advised they await the official image earlier than disrobing however then Johnson quipped, “We have now to point out that we’re harder than Putin” and the joke stored rolling.

“We’re going to get the bare-chested horseback driving show,” Trudeau mentioned, referring to Putin’s notorious 2009 photograph op of himself driving shirtless on a horse.

“Horseback driving is the perfect,” European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned, with out apparently weighing in on the clothes challenge itself.

Johnson interjected: “We’ve received to point out them our pecs.”

The leaders posed – jackets on – for photographs earlier than reporters have been hustled out of the room, leaving the sartorial debate behind closed doorways.

Russian President Vladimir Putin rides a horse near the Western Sayan Mountains in southern Siberia's Tuva region in August 2007
Russian President Vladimir Putin rides a horse close to the Western Sayan Mountains in southern Siberia’s Tuva area in 2007 [RIA Novosti/Kremlin via Reuters]

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