THE Russian President Vladimir Putin is making a working visit to United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabiabefore welcoming Thursday the president of Iran in Moscow, continuing his return to the international scene, despite Western efforts to isolate him.

Western countries treat Putin as a pariah. At the same time, an international arrest warrant has been issued against him by the International Criminal Court for the abduction of children from Ukraine. So Putin limited his trips abroad to his closest allies.

He was absent from the last major international meetings: the G20 summit in India in September, the BRICS summit in South Africa in August. But he explained that he avoided these meetings to “not cause trouble” for the organizers.

After the summer’s Ukrainian counteroffensive failed, the Russian economy absorbed the shock of Western sanctions, and international attention turned to Gaza and Israel, Putin’s confidence has grown.

“President Putin’s working visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will take place tomorrow. All this will be done within one day”, his representative explained to the journalists Kremlin Dmitry Peskov, explaining that Putin will discuss during these visits “bilateral relations, international agenda, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”, as well as issues of reducing oil production in the context of OPEC+.

Regarding the war in Gaza, Putin has repeatedly been critical of Israel, denouncing the humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza and advocating the creation of a Palestinian state. This message is expected to echo in the Gulf countries.

During a virtual summit of the G20, he accused the West of selective deterrence, by denouncing his invasion of Ukraine, while they do not follow a similar trend towards “the extermination of civilians in Palestine”.

As far as the oil, Russia announced last week its intention to strengthen the production reduction at least until the end of March 2024 mwith the aim of “stabilizing prices”, in coordination with Saudi Arabia, its strong partner in OPEC+.

China, Central Asia

After his visit to the Middle East, Putin will welcome the president of Iran Ebrahim Raishi in Moscow for conversations.

The Russian president visited Iran in July 2022, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was welcomed to Tehran in October for talks with regional leaders.

According to the Irna news agency, the Iranian president is visiting Moscow at the head of a high-level political-economic delegation.

“Bilateral issues, including economic relations, as well as talks on regional and international issues, especially the situation in Gaza, will be at the top of the agenda of this one-day visit,” according to Irna.

Western countries accuse Iran of participating in the Russian war effort by providing large quantities of attack drones and other weapons, which Russia is using in its campaign of mass bombing of Ukrainian cities.

Previously, Putin had visited China in October to meet his good ally Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the New Silk Roads Forum.

A few days earlier, he had visited Kyrgyzstan, an ally of Moscow, in his first trip abroad since the international arrest warrant was issued.

Between the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has restricted his travel for nearly four years.