Russian President Vladimir Putin, amid the retreat of Russian troops from Kherson in Ukraine, refused to participate in the G20 summit. He decided not only not to attend this meeting on the island of Bali in Indonesia, but not even to speak to its participants online. He is simply not ready to receive a dose of negativity from the leaders of the G20 countries, since he has disgraced the whole world with his «military operation».
Putin would have to go through the shame that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went through at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in July this year. Since Minister Lavrov is no stranger to humiliation, it is him who will go on an official visit to the G20 summit.
Every day, Russian President Vladimir Putin has less and less room to maneuver in negotiations with Ukraine. Difficulties for the Kremlin are accumulating both inside the country and abroad. Mobilization in Russia, as expected, did not change the situation on the Ukrainian front at all.
Putin’s decision not to go to the G20 summit highlights his declining diplomatic influence. All influential players in the international arena, including the leaders of China Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi, turn their backs on him. They both sent signals of displeasure to the Russian president: Xi warned against any use of nuclear weapons, and Modi signaled to Moscow that developing countries are “very sharply feeling the problem” of food and energy security as a result of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Putin is now turning his country into a rogue state. Russia’s hostile actions are global in scope and include everything from invading Ukraine to undermining the domestic politics of other countries. Such Russian political figures as the owner of PMC «Wagner» Evgeny Prigozhin are already openly talking about this.
As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the level of the economy and the budget of the Russian Federation has fallen to such a level that it is pointless to stay among the more or less developed countries of the world. Russia must be deprived of the G20 status not only because of the senseless aggression against Ukraine, but also because of its transformation into a rogue state.