Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has alluded to the circumstances surrounding Russia to justify the absence of its president, Vladimir Putin, from the upcoming G20 summit, scheduled for this Tuesday and Wednesday in Bali, Indonesia.
«Circumstances dictate the priority for the president to be in the Russian Federation, so it has been decided that the Russian side would participate in this summit at the level of the foreign minister (Sergei Lavrov),» Peskov said.
Despite Putin’s absence, Peskov stressed that any country interested in meeting with a Russian representative can do so with Lavrov, who in fact has already communicated with «a large circle of participants in this summit».
«Russia is represented at the summit at a high level and, in fact, Lavrov communicates with a large circle of participants in this summit. All others, if they show their desire, have the opportunity to communicate with the Russian side at a high level,» the spokesman of the Russian presidency added.
Finally, Peskov praised Russia’s latest communications with the Indonesian side in the run-up to the summit. Both nations have recently maintained a dialogue that Moscow has valued as «constructive».
The Kremlin already stated on Friday that Putin was not planning to participate in the G20 summit even by videoconference. Russia’s participation, and more specifically Putin’s, has been criticized for months by both the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenski, and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden.
