Vladimir Putin schedules his first foreign trip since the Ukraine war

Vladimir Putin schedules his first foreign trip since the Ukraine war. 

According to a report on Russian state media on Sunday, Vladimir Putin will go to two minor former Soviet nations in Central Asia this week. This would be his first known journey outside of Russia since he authorized the invasion of Ukraine.

The invasion by Russia on February 24 resulted in hundreds of deaths, millions of displaced people, and harsh financial penalties from the West, all of which, according to Putin, are reasons to strengthen commercial connections with other countries like China, India, and Iran.

Putin will go to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan before meeting Indonesian President Joko Widodo for discussions in Moscow, according to Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin reporter for the Russian television network Rossiya 1.

MORE: G-7 will declare a boycott on gold export to Russia.

Putin will visit Imomali Rakhmon, the longest-serving president of a former Soviet state and a close Russian friend, in Dushanbe. 

In addition, he will attend a Caspian country meeting in Ashgabat with the presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkmenistan. Stated Zarubin.

According to the RIA news agency, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, told Belarus television on Sunday that Putin also intended to travel to the Belarusian city of Grodno on June 30 and July 1 to participate in a forum with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Putin’s last known overseas travel was to Beijing in early February, when he and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a “no boundaries” friendship pact hours before attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games.

On February 24, Russia claims to have deployed soldiers into Ukraine to weaken that nation’s military might, prevent the West from using it as a means of provocation against it, expel nationalists, and safeguard Russian-speaking populations in the region’s east. The invasion is seen as an imperialistic territory grab by Ukraine.