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Vladimir Putin will not attend India G20 in person — Kremlin

August 25, 2023

The Russian President faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant and also did not attend the BRICS summit in South Africa.

https://p.dw.com/p/4VZrW
Screens display Russia's President Vladimir Putin via video link from the Moscow Kremlin during a press conference as part of the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa
Fearing arrest, Vladimir Putin had to attend the BRICS summit in South Africa via video linkImage: Sergei Bobylev/dpa/picture alliance

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be going to the G20 summit in India in early September in person.

Such a visit is currently not on the calendar, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday in Moscow.

Pattern of non-attendance

Peskov added that Putin had just attended a gathering of leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economies in South Africa by video link, not in person. The form of his participation in the G20 summit is to be clarified later, the spokesman said.

The meeting will take place on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi. Putin also did not fly to Indonesia for the G20 summit last year.

War crime allegations

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrests warrants in March for Putin and Russia's children commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, which is a war crime.

ICC warrant over Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children

The Kremlin strenuously denies the accusations. Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, insists the warrant against Putin is "void".

However, the warrant means that the Russian president risks arrest if he travels abroad despite warnings that this might be considered an act of war by Moscow.

dh/rc (Reuters, dpa)