2023-10-12 11:18:00
Vladimir Putin is on an official visit to Kyrgyzstan on Thursday where he is due to meet some of his rare allies, his first trip abroad since he was the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “deportation ” of Ukrainian children.
The Russian president, who has given up attending several international summits because of this arrest warrant, is not at risk of being arrested during this two-day trip to Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country close to Moscow which does not has not ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the Court.
Mr. Putin arrived early in the morning in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, cordoned off by a large police force on the occasion of this visit which coincides with the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Russian military base of Kant in Kyrgyzstan.
He spoke with his counterpart Sadyr Japarov, touting ties between Moscow and Bishkek.
“Our relations are developing with great success,” he said, emphasizing the increase in trade, while Kyrgyzstan is accused of helping Russia to circumvent Western sanctions, which he denies.
Mr. Putin will have a meeting on Thursday with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliev, their first since Baku’s victory in Nagorno-Karabakh, while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, whose relations with Moscow have become strained, will be absent.
Summit Friday
The Russian president will then participate in a summit of countries from the former USSR on Friday, in the presence of his main ally, the Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko, but also leaders more doubtful about the invasion of Ukraine, such as the Kazakh Kassym- Jomart Tokayev and Uzbek Chavkat Mirzioyev.
Vladimir Putin, who launched Russian troops into the assault on Ukraine in February 2022, has been under an ICC arrest warrant since March, a decision that Moscow considers “null and void”.
In recent months, he has taken care to avoid large international gatherings, appearing largely absent from the BRICS summit in South Africa in August, then from that of the G20 in India in September.
The Russian president explained in early October that he was avoiding international summits so as not to “cause problems” for the organizers.
“If I come, there will be political shows, political attacks,” he justified, believing that there was “enough to do at home” anyway.
Vladimir Putin, whom the West is trying to make a pariah, is also expected in China, at the invitation of his ally Xi Jinping, to participate in an international economic forum. The trip should take place next week.
This will be his first trip to this country, a close partner, since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
Circumvention of sanctions
If Mr. Putin had already traveled little since the Covid-19 pandemic, and even less since the offensive in Ukraine, he had visited several Central Asian countries in 2022.
The former Soviet republics of Central Asia remain among Moscow’s closest partners, even if their relations have been strained since the start of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Their heads of state committed at the end of September in Berlin to make “additional efforts” to prevent Russia from circumventing sanctions via their countries, a sign of their desire to deepen their relations with the West.
Kazakhstan, which has a large Russian minority, has announced that it wants to strengthen the Kazakh language compared to that of the former “brother people”.
In the Caucasus, it is with Armenia that relations have become strained, since Azerbaijan’s military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Yerevan recently decided to join the ICC and demonstrated its rapprochement with the Europeans.
However, economic, military and cultural ties between Russia and the former Soviet republics remain strong.
Mr. Putin thus kicked off deliveries of Russian gas to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan last week, a source of income while the sector is hit by sanctions.
A ceremony took place on Saturday, the day the master of the Kremlin celebrated his 71st birthday. Surrounded by Kazakh and Uzbek leaders, Mr. Putin showed them the Aurus Komendant, the first luxury off-roader manufactured in Russia despite sanctions.
12/10/2023 11:17:31 – Bichkek (Kyrgyzstan) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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