Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited to and accepted the opportunity to attend the G-20 summit, but the Pentagon doesn’t believe the invitation should’ve been extended.
Putin informed Indonesian President Joko Widodo that he “would attend” the summit, Widodo said in a statement on Friday, while Pentagon spokesman John Kirby responded to the news, saying that Putin “absolutely” shouldn’t be invited considering his decision to invade Ukraine.
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“He absolutely shouldn’t be,” Kirby said in a CNN interview Friday morning. “He has isolated Russia by his own actions and should continue to be isolated by the international community. I can’t speak for President Biden or what the schedule might offer for the president, for the United States attendance, but it is inappropriate, I think, for the entire international community to keep treating Russia as if things are normal — because it is not.”
Kirby would not declare, when asked, whether it was a mistake to invite Putin.
Widodo said he talked by phone with Putin, who had “provided an update on the situation in Ukraine including the ongoing negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine,” and he said that the Russian president “expressed his gratitude for the invitation to the G-20 summit and he said he would attend.”
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The Indonesian president, the current G-20 chairman, also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the summit, which could set up a clash between the leaders of the warring nations.
President Joe Biden said last month that Russia should be removed from the G-20, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell were among several of the world’s top banking and finance officials to walk out of a G-20 meeting when a Russian official spoke last week.
