Interference signals during summit meetings
Putin is omnipresent at the G7 summit – he made sure of that day after day
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Yury Kochetkov / POOL EPA/ AP / DPA
Russia was deprived of the status of a “G” country years ago, but Vladimir Putin is omnipresent at the G7 summit meeting in Elmau. The President obviously made sure of that.
It’s been nine years, pretty much exactly, since Vladimir Putin last represented a “G”. Even then, at the G8 summit on Lough Erne, it became apparent that Russia’s president took very different positions from Western leaders.
How can the bloody civil war in Syria be ended? Some wanted the dictator Bashar al-Assad to lay down his arms, the other didn’t want that – and even defended arms deliveries to the regime beforehand. Eventually, Northern Ireland agreed on one poor, because demonstrative, final statement. The result was a “cordial standoff” like that “New York Times” headlines at the time.
Icy atmosphere at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, 2013: then US President Barack Obama (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Evan Vucci/ / Picture Alliance
A year later, the demonstrative cordiality was over. Russia was deprived of the consecration of a “G” nation, the seven leading industrial nations closed Putin in 2014 in view of the illegal annexation of Crimea out of their squad. A “turning point” later, nothing has changed: President Putin is not present at the G7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria. And yet omnipresent.
This is of course due, on the one hand, to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. But also, on the other hand, the numerous disruptive signals that Putin sent to the alliance during the summit meeting, which wants to demonstrate unity and determination in the fight against Russia. Of course, one is related to the other.
Vladimir Putin talks at the G7 summit
The G7 received the first message even before the summit began: Russia plans to deploy Iskander-type ground-launched missiles to Belarus, which can also be equipped with nuclear-capable missiles. Putin promised the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting in Saint Petersburg. The transfer will take place in the next few months, Putin said on Saturday, according to the Interfax state agency.
This would involve Russia (even) more deeply in its war policy, most recently Ukraine reported massive rocket fire from Belarusian territory. This cannot be verified independently. But obviously Putin’s announcement met an unprepared G7, which could only express their serious concern in a joint statement.
That finally returned to the start of the conference on Sunday after around three weeks Residential areas in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv were shot at, at least Carl Bildt does not want it to be understood as a coincidence. it is difficult the attacks not to be seen as a “conscious escalation”, wrote the former Prime Minister of Sweden on Twitter. The current co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations sees this as “a signal for today’s G7 meeting”.
At least the announcement by the Kremlin should not have been a coincidence that Putin wants to attend the G20 summit in Indonesia in November. The official invitation was received in the Kremlin and answered positively, said an adviser to the president. It is still unclear whether Putin could attend the meeting in person or via video link. The possible appearance poses a dilemma for the Western alliance, which military expert Carlo Masala describes as follows: “Don’t take part and snub the host Indonesia, or take part and disavow yourself.” This puts the other summit participants in a “dilemma”, so Masala on Twitter.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) commented on his own participation with corresponding tight lips. This will be decided “shortly before departure”, he said. However, cooperation within the framework of the 20 leading industrialized and emerging countries is important, the Chancellor added, referring to the Indian G20 presidency next year. “We must not torpedo the G20,” emphasized Scholz. Also piquant: Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, as the organizer of the G20 meeting, also attended the G7 summit as one of the guests – at the invitation of Chancellor Scholz, who is trying to to reduce the Russian sphere of influence in Southeast Asia, for example.
While the world is still watching the G7 summit in Elmau Putin left for his own summit. On Tuesday, the President will first travel to Central Asian Tajikistan, then on to Turkmenistan, where he will take part in a summit meeting with the other countries bordering the Caspian Sea (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan) on Wednesday.
It is Putin’s first (known) trip abroad since the Russian invasion of Ukraine – and may be an attempt to show demonstratively that Russia is not completely isolated. Also, Putin will communicate with the states some of which belong to the Russian military alliance CSTOlikely to explore ways to mitigate the impact of Western sanctions on Russia.
“It’s also important to tell him to his face what we think of him”
The G7 announced a lot of this in Elmau. For example, Russia’s military industry’s access to Western technology is to be “further restricted,” and the group also announced targeted sanctions against those responsible for war crimes. In addition, the states also want to examine a price cap for Russian oil in order to deprive Moscow of revenue for financing the war of aggression.
It remains to be seen whether there will be a – perhaps even personal – meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in November. At least EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had not ruled out sitting down with Putin on ZDF on Sunday evening. “It’s also important to tell him to his face what we think of him,” she said. “And we have to think very carefully about whether we paralyze the entire G20.” You are not advocating it. The G20 are “far too important a body” for that.