World Capital: Putin opens a series of talks with foreign leaders

Vladimir Putin's first day of talks with foreign leaders who came to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory has ended in Moscow. On May 7, the Russian president received the heads of Cuba, Mongolia and Congo in the Kremlin, and Vladimir Putin held full-fledged talks with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro with the participation of delegations. Moscow and Caracas signed a strategic partnership agreement, where they agreed, among other things, to develop military-technical cooperation. Putin also noted the prospects for an increase in trade turnover, which increased by 64% last year. Experts interviewed by Izvestia believe that the Venezuelan leader may use his visit to Moscow to offset the sanctions costs by attracting new economic partners. How the Russian capital ensures the safety of guests and who will miss the Victory anniversary — in the Izvestia article.

How Moscow prepared for the reception of foreign leaders

The first day of the largest series of international events in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Victory has come to an end. On May 7, Vladimir Putin managed to hold several meetings with world leaders and thus give a peculiar start to a series of negotiations. In the coming days, Moscow will become, it seems, the real capital of the world: up to May 10, almost three dozen foreign leaders will arrive in the city.

For the Russian president, it will be a kind of "negotiation non-stop": three official visits, over 15 bilateral meetings and a series of talks in the format of "on your feet" in just four days. By the way, the start date of the first summit meetings coincided with another important anniversary for both the head of state and the country: May 7 marked exactly 25 years since Vladimir Putin's first inauguration.

One by one, flights with top officials of foreign countries from all over the world arrived at Vnukovo-2. 29 leaders of the states were planning to arrive in Moscow for the anniversary of the Great Victory. However, it later became known that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would not be able to attend the celebration due to events in the republic, as well as the head of Laos, Thonglong Sisulit, due to illness. But even so, the upcoming celebration can be considered the largest event in terms of representation in recent years.: it bypassed the BRICS summit in Kazan, which was attended by 24 heads of state. On a direct line last year, Vladimir Putin, recalling the Kazan summit, noted that such a large number of leaders from different countries did not gather in Moscow.

Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov noted that the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Victory is turning into "a truly major international event." And this is an indicator of Russia's authority in the world, he stressed. More leaders gathered only at the farewell ceremony for Pope Francis in April: according to the Vatican, about 50 top officials arrived there.

Moscow has prepared for this important event "from" and "to". The motorcades of foreign leaders in the Kremlin are greeted by a giant St. George ribbon, and right at the airport, guests see an impressive inscription.: "Victory." Security measures were seriously tightened in the capital: on the way to the Kremlin, all participants, delegates and journalists had to overcome several checkpoints and security checks: they could not get here without accreditation. Central streets are blocked, and most Muscovites do not have mobile Internet at all — however, mobile phone operators warned about this in advance.

Such measures were taken against the background of outright threats from Ukraine, including against foreign leaders. On the night of May 7 and throughout the day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a new large-scale UAV attack on the Russian regions. The air defenses repelled it. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian Armed Forces are doing everything to ensure that the anniversary of the great Victory is held in a calm and peaceful atmosphere.

Negotiations between Putin and Maduro

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro opened a series of meetings with Vladimir Putin that day. Moreover, the event was held in the status of an official visit: the negotiations began with a conversation between the leaders in a narrow format and continued in the format of an official breakfast with the participation of members of the delegations.

The President of Venezuela will stay here until Victory Day and take part in the celebrations. By the way, the republic pays special attention to the organization of memorable events on this day: the march of the "Immortal Regiment" is being held, a copy of the Victory banner is being installed over Caracas, the population is being told about the decisive role of the USSR in the defeat of Nazi Germany, and a 12-meter-high bronze monument to anti-fascism fighters and an eternal The fire.

"Thanks to the Great Victory of the Red Army 80 years ago, the efforts and heroism of the Soviet people, and the sacrifices of 27 million human lives, Europe and all of humanity were saved," Nicolas Maduro said at the beginning of the narrow—format meeting.

This year, the countries celebrate not only the anniversary of the Victory, but also the 80th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries. Both leaders are pleased with their development and collaboration. By the way, the heads of state met not so long ago — a little more than six months ago in October in Kazan at the BRICS summit.

Nicolas Maduro is generally a frequent visitor to Russia. At the meeting with Vladimir Putin, he even reminisced about how he had previously visited the Kremlin, but also accompanied former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

— We started to develop these relations [with Russia], these reliable relations of friendship that have passed the test of time. We were able to bring our relations to a high level," the Venezuelan president said.

— We remember our friend Hugo Chavez very well. He was a bright leader not only for your country, but for the whole of Latin America. He was definitely our friend. You are now continuing his work, and we wish you all the best," the Russian president added.

Now the Venezuelan leader intends to give a new impetus to the development of relations and "make a qualitative leap" in all areas of cooperation. Vladimir Putin was more specific: among the promising areas, he named energy, transport, pharmaceuticals, logistics, healthcare and the humanitarian component. The same applies to the economy. So far, the trade turnover of $200 million does not fully satisfy the interests of the parties, but nevertheless the trend is good: last year, trade increased by 64%.

At the same time, it is possible that Venezuela, while building relations with Russia, is pursuing political goals, experts believe. The country has been experiencing a deep economic crisis for many years due to the fact that Venezuelan politicians, as well as the oil and gas sector of the Bolivarian Republic, are under US sanctions. Washington considers Nicolas Maduro an illegitimate president: The United States and many European countries did not recognize his victory in the 2024 elections.

Now Venezuela is justifiably looking for partners who could compensate for the sanctions costs, said Andrei Pyatakov, a leading researcher at the ILA RAS. There are high chances that Maduro will try to discuss this in Moscow with representatives of other states. In addition, Venezuela is interested in expanding ties with BRICS.

The negotiations resulted in the signing of an agreement between Russia and Venezuela on strategic partnership and cooperation. It follows from the text of the document that the parties agreed to develop military-technical cooperation in the interests of strengthening defense capabilities.

— Against the backdrop of the sluggish conflict with Guyana over the disputed territory of Essequibo (an oil-rich region of 160,000 square kilometers with a population of 280 thousand people), Maduro declared the zone, which Guyana considers its own, the 24th state of Venezuela. — Ed.) It is important for Caracas to maintain and develop its military potential, — Andrei Pyatakov believes. — In this regard, it should be borne in mind that the Venezuelan army has a large percentage of Russian and Soviet—made equipment in service - all this requires maintenance, modernization, and maintenance of combat readiness.

In his opinion, the military-technical sphere can become an axial component of the agreement on strategic cooperation. "It seems to me that energy and military—technical cooperation are two key areas," the expert emphasized.

The signing of this agreement is capable of bringing friendship between the two countries to a new stage, and most likely because of this, it was decided to hold full-fledged negotiations with Venezuela during these important days of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, added Egor Lidovskaya, Director General of the Hugo Chavez Latin American Center.