Russian president Vladimir Putin will not be able to take part in the G20 emergency summit on Afghanistan, which will be held on Tuesday in the format of a video conference, taking into account his schedule for that day, the Kremlin informed the organizers in advance, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"Today, the president's schedule <...> unfortunately, does not allow [for participation in the summit]," he said. According to the Kremlin spokesman, this is due to the beginning of the parliament work, as well as to "previously planned international contacts," namely the visit of Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan to Russia.
"Foreign minister [Sergey Lavrov] is also on a trip abroad. We, in fact, informed the Italian organizers about this in advance," Peskov explained, referring to the composition of the Russian delegation at the event.
A diplomatic source earlier told TASS that the Russian delegation at the summit would be represented by deputy foreign minister Igor Morgulov. Commenting on this information, the Kremlin spokesman added that Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president's special representative for Afghanistan and director of the second Asia department of the foreign ministry, will also take part in the event from Russia.
"These two diplomats of ours, experts on Afghan problems, will represent the Russian Federation," Peskov summarized.
The emergency summit of the Group of twenty on the situation in Afghanistan will be held on October 12 in the format of a video conference. As Italian prime minister Mario Draghi reported, the list of participants of the meeting will be expanded at the expense of international financial institutions, as well as a number of countries. Among them, he called Qatar, the capital of which hosts the political committee of the Taliban (banned in Russia), which in mid-August seized power in Afghanistan.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS