Unlike his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Putin is rare on the international scene. This Tuesday, the Russian president will make his very first trip to Tajikistan, a former Soviet country and Central Asian ally, since the offensive launched at the end of February against Ukraine.
“A working visit by President Putin is scheduled for tomorrow in Tajikistan,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The master of the Kremlin is then expected on Wednesday at a summit of the countries bordering the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan, another former authoritarian Soviet republic in Central Asia.
A trip to China before self-containment
Vladimir Putin’s last trip abroad dates back to February 4-5 when he visited China for a meeting with his counterpart Xi Jinping on the occasion of the opening of the Winter Olympics.
Just over two weeks later, he launched his country to attack its Ukrainian neighbor, after months of rising tensions and despite diplomatic efforts to prevent Moscow from attacking. Since then, Vladimir Putin has not made any trips, not even to his closest ally, Belarus. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has come to Russia several times.
Very strict sanitary bubble
Tajikistan, the poorest country in the former USSR, is allied with Russia and very dependent on it economically. Due to the Covid pandemic, Vladimir Putin, who was kept in a very strict health bubble, only made three foreign trips between February 2020 and February 2022.
He met the American Joe Biden in Geneva in June 2021, the Indian Narendra Modi in New Delhi in December 2021, then Xi in Beijing in February 2022.