Putin Will Not Attend the Istanbul Talks: No Ministers in the Delegation

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not among those going to Istanbul for peace talks on Ukraine. According to a statement published late in the evening on Wednesday, May 14, on the official Kremlin website, Putin's name is not listed as part of the Russian delegation. Reuters also reported this information, citing a source in the Trump administration.

At the Istanbul meeting, the negotiations on behalf of Russia will be led by the presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. Interestingly, there is not a single minister in the delegation. That is, neither Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov nor Defense Minister Andrei Belousov will participate in this process. Instead, the Kremlin has decided to send Lavrov's deputy Mikhail Galuzin, Belousov's deputy Alexander Fomin, and the head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Igor Kostyukov to the talks.

The official Kremlin statement also includes a list of “experts for negotiations with Ukraine” personally approved by Putin. Among them are Alexander Zorin, the First Deputy Head of the Information Department of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces; Elena Podobreevskaya, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration’s Department for State Policy in the Humanitarian Sphere; Alexey Polishchuk, Director of the Second Department for CIS Countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry; and Viktor Shevtsov, Head of the International Cooperation Division of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

In these negotiations, the main focus will be on the position of the delegation rather than its political rank. However, the absence of Putin and the exclusion of high-level ministers raise questions about how seriously the Russian side is approaching this process.

The Zamin.uz editorial team will continue to closely monitor all developments around the peace talks. Read 'Zamin' on Telegram!