Who gets a visit from Putin?

Foreign Policy

Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t choose his foreign visits lightly. On May 31, Putin makes his first trip abroad since being inaugurated for a third term as president on May 7, to neighboring Belarus. The visit is highly symbolic of Russia’s desire to be the leader in the post-Soviet space, as well as Putin’s continued support for the authoritarian president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko (also known as “Europe’s Last Dictator”). Afterwards, Putin will head to Germany and France, Russia’s major trading partners in the EU. After the European visits, Putin will fly to speak with Uzbek ruler Islam Karimov in Tashkent, to Beijing, and finally to Astana, Kazakhstan, to meet with long-time ruler Nursultan Kazarbayev; countries central to Putin’s vision of a Eurasian Union.

Earlier in the month, Putin suddenly declined to attend the G8 Summit in Camp David, under pretext that he was too busy forming a new Cabinet of Ministers, sending instead Prime Minister Medvedev. The move was widely seen as a snub to President Obama, as Putin avoided a meeting with the president, and sidestepped making the U.S. his first foreign visit. A few days later, Obama announced he would not be able to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vladivostok this September, because it conflicted with the Democratic Party convention.

Putin has now also taken the opportunity to snub the UK, by announcing he will not attend the opening of the London 2012 Olympics, even though the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held on Russian territory in Sochi. Likely, Medvedev will once again be sent in his stead. Russian-British relations have been tense since the 2006 poisoning of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. Moreover the West has been pressuring Russian officials over the 2009 death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky while he was detained in prison. Putin’s foreign trip destinations are by no means accidental.

Meanwhile, not everyone in Belarus is enthusiastic for Putin’s visit to their country. (More here in Russian.) hairy woman hairy woman https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php www.zp-pdl.com займ на карту