Virtual G20 summit: Putin’s words are not for the faint of heart Now you can call Trump a fascist

These are images that are reminiscent of an almost forgotten time: a time before the Russian attack on Ukraine. Vladimir Putin sits in one of the large meeting rooms in the Kremlin on Wednesday afternoon. One of those rooms bathed in white, with a large table in the middle and large screens on the side. The Russian president will take part in a virtual meeting of the G20 countries and deliver a speech to many heads of state and government from the leading industrialized and emerging countries.

A few years ago this would have been nothing special. This time it was different: it was Putin’s return to the big international stage. After the start of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin chief was represented on such occasions by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Now he is back, despite continued Russian aggression against the neighboring country. This is also a fatal signal for Ukraine and its Western supporters.

Russia is increasingly overcoming its international isolation. This is also due to the fact that the war in Ukraine is slowly disappearing from political focus in some parts of the world. For Putin, this action was a victory, and he took the opportunity to launch an insidious attempt at division.

A gift from India

But first India’s role comes back into focus. It is relatively unusual for such a high-profile meeting to take place at the end of a G20 presidency, after the actual G20 summit. Politically, there were no significant results; the heads of state and government simply took stock of the Indian presidency and the summit in New Delhi in September.

That is why the world is now talking about Putin, and not about political measures. With his invitation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the Russian president a platform. The Indian leadership seems to be moving closer politically to the West, but India, together with China, is the largest buyer of Russian raw materials. And the Indian army is dependent on Russian arms imports. That is why Modi politically moves back and forth between Russia and the West. In his speech at the start of the G20 conference on Wednesday, he made no mention of Ukraine.

That should at least please Putin. “You have done a lot to focus the activities of the G20 member states on finding solutions to really urgent problems on the international socio-economic agenda,” the Russian president praised the Indian G20 presidency at the start of his speech. It was not the only Russian attempt to play the leading industrialized and emerging countries against each other.

Cynical speech by Putin

Western representatives in particular spoke about Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said on Wednesday after a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that the G20 meeting was a good opportunity to make it clear that peace in Ukraine can easily be restored if Russia withdraws its troops. The Chancellor again called on Putin to end the war. “Putin must end the attack on Ukraine and withdraw his troops,” Scholz wrote on platform X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday evening. “I called on him during the G20 videoconference to do this.”

But the positions of Western states and their allies will not have come as a surprise to Putin. On the contrary: “Some of our colleagues here have said that they are shocked by ‘Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine,’” the Russian president said in his speech. “In fact, military operations are always a tragedy for certain people, certain families and the entire country. And we absolutely need to think about how we can stop this tragedy.” A poisoned offer, because he does not mention that he can put an end to this tragedy at any time.

These words are not for the faint of heart, especially from a Ukrainian perspective. After all, Russia started this war, and the leader who ordered the attack spoke about it at that meeting as if the catastrophe was irreversible. But what does he want to do with it?

It became clear early on: Putin wanted to present himself as a statesman. He refrained from aggressive rhetoric against the West and accused Ukraine of not wanting to negotiate. There is not even a Russian offer on the table that can be negotiated. On the contrary, the Kremlin sees itself as the victor in the long-term war because Putin believes he has the will to outlast the West.

Russia is becoming less and less isolated

The other heads of state and government did not take the initiative. Of course you know who is responsible for this war, European diplomats often confirm in conversations with t-online. But for many countries in the world, Ukraine is far away – and they pursue their own interests in other areas.

Putin wants to strengthen the Brics states, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. He defends himself against the alleged hegemony and economic dominance of the US and advocates a fairer distribution of world wealth and more climate protection. The latter sounds good, but is not very credible since the Russian economic model is based on the sale of fossil fuels.

Even after the Hamas terror attack, he did not side with Israel, but also criticized the attacks on the Palestinian civilian population in his G20 speech. “Are you not shocked by the current destruction of the civilian population in Palestine and the Gaza Strip?” he asked in his speech.

That is also cynical. After all, it is Russia that wants to attack Ukrainian infrastructure for the second winter in a row – leaving the civilian population cold and in the dark. But one thing is certain: these positions are well received by states that do not place the war in Ukraine high on their list of priorities.

As a result, Putin is slowly no longer persona non grata in international politics, despite his war and the international arrest warrants against him.

It fits Putin’s playbook

The Russian president has slowly started traveling again – especially to countries where he doesn’t have to worry about being arrested. This year he met twice with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also recently posed for a photo with him in Beijing. In September, Putin met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and in October he flew to Kazakhstan. The neighboring country made the news shortly after the outbreak of war in Ukraine because its leadership was surprisingly critical of Moscow. But now people were talking about a strategic partnership again.

The international isolation of Russia’s leaders is visibly crumbling. It is not unlikely that Putin had exactly this foresight. It fits his script.

This invitation to the G20 meeting therefore comes at a perfect time for him. The Kremlin is currently certain of victory, as the Ukrainian counter-offensive this summer and fall was not particularly successful. He also took the opportunity to present himself to his own people as the leader who will once again have a seat at the table when world politics are made.

After all, there will be elections in Russia in March and Putin has sent a central domestic political message with his actions: his country is once again on an equal footing with the other leading powers. Everything is as usual, Putin has everything under control.

It was the perfect format for the Russian president, and the G20 did him a favor by inviting him. All participants read their statements; no one could respond to Putin’s speech. The Kremlin then called a press release on Wednesday evening ‘Extraordinary G20 summit’. The joy at how the conference went was hard to miss. Brazil will take over the presidency of the G20 on December 1. It can therefore be assumed that the Kremlin boss will also get a platform there – despite all the war crimes.

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