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After BRICS, Putin to skip G20 summit in Delhi as well

August 25, 2023 17:01 IST

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not personally attend the G20 summit to be held in New Delhi on September 9-10, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced in Moscow on Friday.

IMAGE: Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a televised address in Moscow, June 24, 2023. Photograph: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin via Reuters

"No, the president has no such plans,” the official Tass news agency quoted the Kremlin spokesman as saying.

The format of Putin's participation would be determined later, Peskov said.

Putin did not personally attend the just-concluded BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. He was represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

President Putin decided against attending the first in-person BRICS summit after Covid-19 as the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March over an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

South Africa is an ICC signatory and was expected to help in Putin's arrest if he was present in the country.