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The vacation is part of a series of diplomatic meetings with the Russian leader and comes as Ukraine tries to prop up the West for its war effort.
By Ivan Nechepurenko, Anton Troianovski and Vivian Nereim
President Vladimir V. Putin will make a rare visit to the Middle East on Wednesday, the Kremlin announced, saying he would discuss bilateral relations, oil and foreign affairs in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The trip is part of a flurry of diplomatic meetings the Russia leader will conduct this week; on Thursday in Moscow, Mr. Putin will host President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, the leader of another key player in the region.
Mr. Putin, who has not traveled beyond China, Iran and the former Soviet states since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, will visit both the Emirates and Saudi Arabia in one day, Dmitri S. Peskov, his spokesman, told journalists during a briefing on Tuesday.
The meetings, unexpectedly announced, come as Ukraine tries to bolster Western aid for its war effort, as the United States erodes. President Volodymyr Zelensky was scheduled to meet with the U. S. Senate on Tuesday in an attempt to strain the urgency of maintaining U. S. monetary and military order. however, he cancelled the consultation at the last minute.
Putin’s will also take a position opposite to the context of the war between Israel and Hamas, a clash that has contributed to his geopolitical goals by diverting Western leaders’ attention from the war in Ukraine and giving him a new opportunity to appeal to global audiences, given the widespread sympathy in many countries for the Palestinian cause.
Though he has called Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack a terrorist act, Mr. Putin has likened his war in Ukraine to the Palestinian resistance, claiming that both represent struggles against the dominance of Western elites.
Peskov said Putin would discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, as well as possible joint moves to coordinate global oil production and ensure stability. Calling the Russian leader’s diplomatic merry-go-round this week a “concentrated coup,” Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said Russia’s war in Ukraine would also be on the agenda.
“It’s inevitable,” Ushakov said, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency. “It would be incumbent upon our colleagues to pay attention to Vladimir Putin’s evidence of the evolution of the situation. “
Saudi Arabia has attempted to act as a mediator in the war, inviting some 40 countries for a peace conference in August and helping to conduct a successful prisoner exchange last year that included American and British citizens, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman mediating the release.
Now, there is renewed speculation in Russia about possible peace talks, amid questions over the durability of Western support for Ukraine and as Ukrainian officials acknowledge that this year’s counteroffensive failed to achieve a significant breakthrough.
Citing an unnamed, high-ranking Russian source, Izvestia, a pro-Kremlin daily, reported on Tuesday that Russia would not oppose conducting talks with Ukraine in a European country, such as Hungary. In an interview with RBC, a Russian business daily, Grigory Yavlinsky, a longtime Russian politician who met with Mr. Putin in October, said that he had offered to become an intermediary in such talks.
Zelensky, who vowed that Ukraine would continue to fight to liberate its territory, told The Associated Press last week that he still felt pressure from his allies to negotiate with RussiaArray even if “some voices are still heard. “
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelensky, dismissed the latest indications that Russia would be in a position to negotiate, calling them nothing more than an attempt to secure an “operational pause” to “prepare for the next stages of aggression. “
“Russia, through the word ‘negotiations,’ only means an ultimatum, a capitulation and promises to Russia that it will be prosecuted for war crimes and that it will be able to resume war at any time,” he said in a statement.
There is nothing in Ukraine’s position, he wrote.
Shot, a Russian Telegram channel that first reported Monday’s plans for Putin, said the president would travel first to the United Arab Emirates and then to Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed.
On Monday, Ushakov, Putin’s foreign adviser, told Shot that the Kremlin considers talks with Prince Mohammed “very important. “
“I hope those negotiations will be very useful,” he said.
Joint efforts on oil production, coordinated through the OPEC Plus organization of oil manufacturers, have contributed to the progression of strong ties over the years between Russia and Saudi Arabia and between Putin and Prince Mohammed.
However, contentious issues have arisen between the two countries this year, as Saudi Arabia leads OPEC Plus in its efforts to reduce oil production and prices, with limited good luck so far. While the kingdom has voluntarily reduced its oil production by a million barrels a year, Russia today has contributed to more modest cuts to its exports, but not to its production, despite Saudi attempts to convince Russian officials to take further action.
“We tried,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi energy minister and Prince Mohammed’s half-brother, said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday. They pressed him by saying that there was still a peak of acceptance between the two countries when it came to oil.
“Honestly, they do everything through the book,” he said.
Over the past few years, Prince Mohammed has sought to position Saudi Arabia as a global power capable of bringing warring parties to the table; the kingdom has mediated peace talks in Sudan’s civil war and re-established ties with its regional rival, Iran.
Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed has also sought to position himself as a mediator and played a role in Russia’s release of U. S. basketball player Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap a year ago. Griner was released from Russian custody on the tarmac of Abu Dhabi airport.
Both countries have pushed back against U. S. and European pressures to distance themselves from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, saying they are more useful as potential mediators than they would be if forced to take sides.
Marc Santora contributed reporting.
Ivan Nechepurenko has been a Times reporter since 2015, covering politics, economics, sports and culture in Russia and the former Soviet republics. He was raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in Piatykhatky, Ukraine. More about Ivan Nechepurenko
Anton Troyanovsky is the Times’ Moscow bureau chief. He writes about Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Learn more about Anton Troianovsky
Vivian Nereim is the Times’ senior reporter covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. It is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Learn more about Vivian Néréim
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