Strelna, October 7 – Novosti. An informal summit of the leaders of the CIS countries is being held in St. Petersburg on Friday, the meeting is organized in the Konstantinovsky Palace, said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov previously called the summit in St. Petersburg an important event in the context of preparations for the next week’s CIS summit in Astana . Peskov also did not rule out that foreign government leaders participating in the St. Petersburg summit would congratulate Putin on his birthday at an informal meeting.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko , Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan , Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev , Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev , Tajik President Emomali Rahmon , Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev , and Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov are participating in the event in St. Petersburg along with Putin .
This is not the first time the CIS summit has been held in an informal setting. The last meeting was held in 2021 and also in St. Petersburg. Then Putin invited his colleagues to the northern capital before the New Year – December 28th.
In September, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Putin would take part in Astana in October in a meeting on interaction and confidence building measures in Asia and in the CIS summit, and also hold a summit meeting in the Russia-Central Asia format. Later , Peskov , answering a question about Putin’s visit to Astana, said that it was too early to ask questions about this, but plans had not changed.
