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Vladimir Putin is set to visit both Saudi Arabia and the UAE on Wednesday, the Kremlin told reporters, the first time he has travelled to the region since Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.
“President Putin’s working visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will take place tomorrow and everything will happen within one day,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
The parties will converse bilateral relations and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he added.
Saudi Arabia is Russia’s key partner in Opec+, while the UAE has become the main international hub for Russian businesses and a significant route for circumventing western sanctions.
Putin enjoys close relations with both the oil-exporting Gulf states, which have remained neutral in the Ukraine conflict. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are not signatories to the statue that governs the International Criminal Court, which has indicted the Russian president for alleged war crimes.
Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, ruler of the UAE, have developed personal relationships with Putin and touted themselves as interlocutors between Russia and the west.
There has also been talk that Putin, who has been either the country’s president or prime minister since 1999, was set to announce his candidacy for the next presidential term before the end of the year.
The visit is the first time that Putin has travelled to the region since the Ukraine invasion of February 2022, and the first visit since then to countries other than China, Iran and the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Putin will also on Thursday host President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran. Iran and Saudi Arabia have long been regional rivals, although the two signed a Chinese-brokered deal this year to restore diplomatic relations.
