Putin travels abroad this week for the 1st time since the start of the war

LONDON (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin will visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, two states that belonged to the Soviet Union, this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday.

Pavel Zarubin, Kremlin correspondent for state-run television channel Rossiya 1, said Vladimir Putin will visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, before receiving Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Moscow.

In Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, the Russian leader will meet his counterpart Imomali Rakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving leader of a former Soviet state.

Vladimir Putin will then attend the Caspian nations summit in Ashgabat, which will be attended by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan, Pavel Zaroubin said.

Vladimir Putin’s last known trip out of Russia was to Beijing in early February, where he unveiled a ‘limitless’ friendship treaty with Chinese President Xi Jinping hours before the two were to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

(Guy Faulconbridge; French version Nicolas Delame)