Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided not to attend the G20 summit in New Delhi in September, the Kremlin announced on Friday, citing preoccupation with the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the media that Putin is not planning to travel for the G20 summit but the country will be represented. He, however, did not spell out who will represent Russia at the G20 or whether Putin will address it via video-conference and send Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to Delhi for the deliberations. This was the model he followed for the just concluded BRICS summit in Johannesburg but none of the member countries have shunned Russia the way many members of the G20 have, particularly the G7 countries.

Putin had also stayed away from the Bali G20. In that instance, Lavrov headed the Russian delegation and Putin did not address the summit via video-conference. At the foreign ministers’ meeting of G20 countries in Delhi in March, the G7 countries had avoided Lavrov in public to register their opposition to Russia over its war on Ukraine.

There was no immediate comment from the external affairs ministry on Putin’s decision to stay away from the Delhi G20.