Putin Won't Attend G20 Summit To Avoid Potential Confrontations With Biden, Other World Leaders Over Ukraine War

Vladimir Putin won't attend the Group of 20 summit next week in Bali as Russia seeks to protect the president from potential high-level tensions amid setbacks in the Ukraine war. 

What Happened: Putin will be represented by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, an Indonesian government official told Reuters. 

See Also: ‘Lifelines To Putin Mean More Death,’ Says Garry Kasparov, Slamming Sullivan’s ‘Lines Of Communication’ Comment

Putin will join one of the meetings virtually at the G20 summit, said Jodi Mahardi, a spokesperson for Indonesia's coordinating minister of maritime and investment affairs. 

Ukraine and western nations have collectively pressed Indonesia to withdraw its invitation to Putin from the leaders’ summit as G20 host, which the country’s President Joko Widodo feared would be overshadowed by a “very worrying” rise in geo-political tensions.

“The G20 is not meant to be a political forum. It’s meant to be about economics and development,” Widodo was quoted as earlier by Financial Times.

The summit beginning on Nov. 15, will see a number of other world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Indonesia also has extended an invitation to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has said he will not participate if Putin joins the forum. 

Earlier, the U.S. considering the chances that Putin and Biden may cross paths during the summit, was reportedly making all possible efforts to avoid the scenario.

Meanwhile, Biden is also expected to hold talks with the Chinese President, for which he has said he is not willing to make any fundamental concessions when he meets with the Chinese leader in Asia, including over Taiwan. 

Russian troops across the Kherson region will withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the face of Ukrainian advances, Russian state media reported Wednesday.

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