Putin to make first foreign trip since Ukraine invasion
By Orowo Victoria Ojieh with agency report
Visits to two small former Soviet states in central Asia will be made by President Vladimir Putin this week in what would be the Russian leader’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. He will also meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow.
In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he will attend a summit of Caspian nations including the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, Zarubin said.
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Putin’s last known trip outside Russia was a visit to the Beijing in early February, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled a “no limits” friendship treaty hours before both attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games.
Russia’s February 24th invasion has killed thousands of people and displaced millions more. He said the main aim of the invasion was to defend “our” people in the largely Russian-speaking Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
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