Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Kyrgyzstan tomorrow, the presidential office of the Central Asian country announced, as quoted by Reuters. The agency notes that this will be the Russian leader’s first reported trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest.
Putin has rarely traveled abroad since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has not been known to leave Russia since the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest in March on suspicion of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, BTA recalls. The Kremlin denies these accusations.
“At the invitation of the President of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Sadir Zhaparov, on October 12 of this year, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, will arrive on an official visit to the country,” the presidential office of Kyrgyzstan said in a statement on its website.
Putin agreed in May during talks with Zhaparov to visit Kyrgyzstan, but there is still no official confirmation from the Kremlin that the Russian leader will travel to Bishkek tomorrow.
The Russian president is expected to travel to China next week to attend the Third Belt and Road Initiative Summit. Neither Kyrgyzstan nor China are members of the ICC, which was created to prosecute war crimes, Reuters points out.
Moscow denies the ICC charges, and the Kremlin says the arrest warrant is evidence of Western hostility toward Russia, which has opened a criminal case against the prosecutor and ICC judges who issued the warrant.
2023-10-11 07:32:03
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