Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will not attend the next Group of 20 summit in Indonesia as the Kremlin aims to protect him from possible high-level tensions over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported, citing its sources.
This decision will allow Putin to avoid potential conflicts with U.S. President Joe Biden, who previously called him “a war criminal,” and some European leaders.
Russia plans to send Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the summit instead, according to one of Bloomberg’s sources.
President Volodymyr Zelensky was also invited to the G20 largest economies summit, which will take place in Bali on Nov. 15-16.
On Nov. 3, he said he wouldn’t participate in the event if Putin attended, but in five days, president’s spokesman Serhiy Nikiforov told the Suspilne media outlet that Zelensky might join the summit in the online format.
