Vladimir Putin will not attend G20 summit in India in person: Kremlin

Russian president Vladimir Putin will not be coming to the G20 summit in India next month in person, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced on Friday, 25 August, in Moscow.

Pattern of non-attendance

This is not exceptional, and India should probably not view this as a slight or cooling of bilateral relations, however. As Peskov pointed out, Putin had just attended a gathering of leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economies in South Africa by video link, and not in person. Putin also did not fly to Indonesia for the G20 summit last year.

The degree and medium of President Putin's participation in the G20 summit on September 9–10 in New Delhi will be clarified later, Kremlin said.

War crime allegations

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

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.