Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Friday with his counterparts from the CIS countries at the Konstantinovsky Palace near St. Petersburg. The informal summit will be held on the 70th anniversary of the Russian head of state.
There is usually one regular and one informal meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the CIS during the year. For example, last year an informal meeting of the CIS leaders was held in St. Petersburg on December 28, and an official meeting on October 15, which had to be arranged via video link due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted earlier, the October 7 talks will be an important stage of preparation for the CIS summit, scheduled for next week in Astana. On October 12-14, the capital of Kazakhstan, which chairs the Commonwealth in 2022, will host summits of the CIS, the Conference on Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the Central Asia-Russia meeting of heads of state.
Putin repeatedly stressed that the creation of the CIS was justified, the integration of the countries was deepening both in security and economic issues. According to the president of Russia, in general, the ties established since the Soviet period have played their positive role, and many projects have been developed on a new level. He is confident that for more than 30 years the CIS has come a long way, established itself as an authoritative regional integration association in which member states seek to build relations on the principles of good neighborliness, partnership, mutual benefit and consideration of each other's interests.
CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev has previously projected that during the summit in Astana the issues of economic cooperation will be discussed, including in the context of Western sanctions. Lebedev drew attention to the fact that due to the sanctions, which are imposed primarily against Russia and Belarus, other countries of the Commonwealth suffer as well, so it is important for the heads of states to discuss pressing problems and find the best ways to solve them in the interests of each CIS country.
Summit to celebrate
Peskov is sure that the CIS leaders will use the meeting in St. Petersburg to congratulate their Russian counterpart on his anniversary. However, the Kremlin spokesman noted that the protocol of the summit does not formally imply a "festive tone". According to Peskov's forecast, Putin's working day will be busy. According to him, he has a number of international phone calls scheduled. In particular, the schedule includes a conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader himself reported that the two sides plan to "discuss recent events."
The president almost never takes a day off on his own birthday and most often spends it at work. Several major international summits attended by the Russian leader have fallen on October 7. So, in 2002, Putin celebrated his 50th birthday in Chisinau at the CIS summit, in 2013 he received congratulations from the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation on the island of Bali at the APEC summit.
Putin's work schedule from time to time brings him to his native St. Petersburg on his birthday, where the president not only receives congratulations, but also holds business meetings and talks.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of RF
Based on materials TASS