NB BUREAU
Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t attend G20 summit next week as the Kremlin seeks to protect the president from potential high-level tensions over his invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported quoting unnamed sources.
The summit is scheduled to take place on November 15-16 at the Indonesian Island of Bali.
US President Joe Biden in March said Russia should be ejected from the G-20 in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Indonesian President Joko Widodo refused to withdraw the invitation to Putin as his country, which holds the G-20’s rotating presidency, sought to maintain a neutral position. Instead, Widodo also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the summit as a guest.
(With inputs from media reports)
