Vladimir Putin will be speaking about Russia’s view of the world in an unexpected appearance at a G20 summit on Wednesday, according to Moscow.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the Russian president will be speaking on what he sees as the “deeply unstable world situation”.
It comes more than 18 months after Moscow invaded Ukraine triggering an international cost of living crisis by affecting fuel and grain exports.
The G20 represents 19 countries with the world’s largest economies, along with the regional bodies, the EU and the African Union.
This week’s meeting is to be chaired by current G20 president, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday.
A press release from the organisation did not mention specific speakers ahead of the event but did confirm the leaders of all G20 nations had been invited – that includes Russia.
The G20 said it intended to “take forward key, select outcomes/action points from the New Delhi summit”.
Putin skipped the in-person G20 meeting in New Delhi back in September and the 2022 summit in Indonesia, choosing to send his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as his representative instead.
As Russian state TV presenter Paul Zarubin noted on his Telegram channel on Sunday, it will be the “first event in a long time” that will include both the Russian president and Western leaders.
Since the war began in February 2022, the West has aligned itself with Ukraine, offering investment, weapons and military training to its troops – although it has always stopped short of getting directly involved.
Still, Putin and his top officials have slammed the West repeatedly, as Russia’s efforts on the Ukraine frontline stall.
Putin will also be taking part in another virtual discussion on Tuesday about the Israel-Hamas war at a summit of the BRICS bloc of nations.
The Russian president has barely left the safety of his home country since the International Criminal Court released an arrest warrant for him back in March, over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
He did visit Iran back in July and ventured to Belarus last December, but has steered clear of any NATO country since February 2022.