Russian President Putin to attend 2022 Beijing Olympics in China: Reports

Amid speculation of attending the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, Russian news agency TASS reported the confirmation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's presence came when Putin was speaking at the 13th "Russia Calling!" VTB Capital Investment Forum session. "I have been planning to go to Beijing next year," said Putin. Notably, the Russian President has recently accepted the invitation from his Chinese counterpart and Xi Jinping to attend Beijing’s Winter Olympics.

If he will attend the meeting, it will make him the first state leader to meet face to face with Xi since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the central Chinese province of Wuhan in 2019. "China and Russia have a fine tradition of celebrating major events together. In 2014 Xi attended the Winter Olympics ceremony in Sochi in Russia," PTI quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian as saying during a media briefing on Tuesday. "Now President Xi Jinping is inviting his good friend President Putin to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics. President Putin has accepted the invitation happily," Zhao added. According to Lijian, the two sides are in close communication on the details of the visit.

"We believe this will once again show the partnership between China and Russia that helps for the best for each other. We hope and we are convinced that the athletes from the two countries will set new records and we will make new contributions to deliver a splendid and safe Olympics," Zhao had said in the presser.

US, UK announce to boycott the event "diplomatically"

Meanwhile, several top leaders including, US President Joe Biden and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced a diplomatic boycott of the mega sports event. Biden said last week that backing a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in February is “something we're considering.” On the other hand, Beijing is making grand preparations to host the Winter Olympic Games to be held in February next year. Besides the US, the EU and several other western countries were expected to join the diplomatic boycott. It is worth mentioning "diplomatic boycott" means that their leaders and diplomats will not take part in the opening and closing ceremonies while their athletes participate in the sports events.

Image: AP