Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly ready to venture on his first foreign trip since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on war crimes charges.
Putin is scheduled to visit him China Belt and Road Forum In October, according to a Bloomberg report.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for his alleged involvement in the illegal abduction and deportation of children from Ukraine, causing panic within the Kremlin over the stability of Putin’s rule and whether the warrant amounted to a call for regime change.
Putin has maintained a lower level of concern in recent months to avoid traveling to countries that could carry out the arrest warrant. And he didn’t show up BRICS Summit In person in South Africa last week after months of back and forth discussions about whether it was safe for him to do so.
instead of, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov traveled to Johannesburg, while Putin attended virtually, in a decision seen as an attempt to avoid an international scandal over the arrest warrant.
Putin has been dodging other international trips, too. The Russian president told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week that he would not travel to India next month for the summit. G20 summit. A Kremlin spokesman said Putin was “too busy” to attend.
China has made a delicate balancing act since Putin invaded Ukraine last year. China and Russia share what they call the “Partnership Without Borders”. But Xi was surprised when Putin invaded Ukraine, according to the US intelligence community’s assessment. However, Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s actions, and has continued to spend billions of dollars spreading pro-Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine.
The visit to China comes months after President Xi Jinping visited Russia in March, where he praised Putin for his “strong leadership”.
during the visit, Beijing She has worked to portray herself as a constructive partner, sharing details about a proposed peace plan for Ukraine — one that tends to side with Russia — all the while claiming to be “neutral” on the war. Xi noted at the time that the partnership between China and Russia will continue with the common goal of countering US influence on the world stage.
A lot has changed since that trip. Putin managed to fend off an organized rebellion by the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the biggest challenge to Putin’s hold on power in years. Prigozhin is presumed to have died after a mysterious plane crash that Russia watchers said was a possible assassination orchestrated by Putin himself in a bid to consolidate power.
Beijing has also seen some unrest among senior officials in recent weeks. First, China’s foreign minister, Chen Gang, disappeared, and later was overthrown. Then, earlier this month, Beijing replaced the head of China’s missile force unit, General Li Yuchao, with his deputy, in a sign that Xi may be feeling uneasy about his sense of control over his regime, the Daily Beast reported.
The meeting also comes as Russia prepares to take over the presidency of the BRICS grouping next January, and as the club – short for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – looks to add new members to grow their collective political and economic ties. influence on the world stage.
For Russia, changing the group’s membership is likely to be seen as a way to thwart Moscow’s isolation on the international stage while Putin continues to wage war in Ukraine.
For China, some of the changes on the horizon may be a way to show that Unity and support for Beijing After alienating the Allies through its “unlimited partnership” with Moscow, even as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine, New York times mentioned.