The Russian government has asked President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and his entourage to undergo strict health control to get closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin during an official trip to Moscow, scheduled for next week.
According to the guidelines sent by the Kremlin to the Brazilian government, to which BBC News Brasil had access, Bolsonaro and the members of the entourage who will approach Putin would have to undergo tests of up to five PCR-type tests for the detection of Covid-19.
One of them would be made between three and four hours before the meeting with the Russian president. Sought after, neither the Itamaraty nor the Planalto Palace answered whether Bolsonaro will comply with the request.
The requirement of at least five PCR-type tests for members of the entourage who will meet with Putin was sent by the Russian government in early February, when the authorities of the two countries worked out the details of the visit.
According to Russian guidelines, all people in the Brazilian delegation, including passengers on the plane that will transport Bolsonaro, must present three negative PCR tests before boarding.
The first must be done four to five days before arrival in Russia. The second has to be done two days in advance and the third the day before arrival in Moscow.
In addition to these three, the members of the Brazilian delegation that will participate in the meetings with Putin were instructed to hold two more. One of them would be held on arrival in Russia and the last, between three and four hours before the meeting with the Russian president.
The recommendation sent by the Russian government to Itamaraty expressly says that the orientation of the exams also applies to the head of the delegation, in this case, President Bolsonaro.
Unlike Bolsonaro, who has already made statements indicating that he has no intention of getting vaccinated, Putin, according to the Russian government, is already vaccinated against Covid-19.
Russia is one of the countries most affected by Covid-19 in the world. According to a survey carried out by Johns Hopkins University, it is the fourth country in the number of deaths caused by the disease, with 331,100 deaths and more than 13 million confirmed cases.
In terms of death tolls, the country is only behind India (507,000), Brazil (636,000) and the United States (915,000).
The concern of Russians with the possibility of contamination by Putin is not exclusive to Brazilians, and similar protocols have been adopted in the visits of other heads of state to the country recently.
This Friday (11/2), for example, the Russian government confirmed that French President Emmanuel Macron refused to undergo Covid-19 tests carried out by Russian professionals required by the country during his visit to the country, this Friday. week.
Macron met with Putin on Tuesday (8/2) in Moscow to discuss the border crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
According to the BBC, a source said that the sanitary protocol demanded by the Russians was considered “unacceptable” by the French.
Faced with Macron’s refusal, the meeting took place with respect for a strict regime of social distancing.
The two were photographed at the ends of a table approximately four meters long.
BBC News Brasil sent questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Planalto Palace asking if President Bolsonaro would undergo the exams requested by the Russian government.
The Itamaraty informed that the answer should be given by the Planalto, which, in turn, has not yet expressed itself.
The visit
According to Itamaraty, Bolsonaro will embark on Monday (2/14) for his official visit to Russia.
His arrival is scheduled for Tuesday (15/2) and the meeting with the Russian president is scheduled for Wednesday (16/2).
Putin and the Brazilian president are expected to meet twice on the same day. The first will be a meeting where the two will have a conversation with the help of interpreters. The second will be a lunch with the presence of other members of the delegation.
After the visit to Putin, Bolsonaro should go to Hungary, where he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, on Thursday (17/2).
Bolsonaro’s visit to Putin comes amid heightened tensions on Russia’s border with Ukraine. In recent months, the Russian army has deployed thousands of troops to the region.
The move has drawn criticism from European countries and the United States who say they fear an invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Russian authorities, however, criticize the possibility of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance created during the Cold War period to face the former bloc led by the former Soviet Union.
In 2014, the Crimean peninsula, a region that belonged to Ukraine, was annexed by Russia. In addition, a conflict involving pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region has killed at least 14,000 people.
It is in this context that the visit of the Brazilian president will take place. Brazilian diplomats interviewed by BBC News Brasil say that the Ukrainian crisis should not be part of the conversation between Bolsonaro and Putin.
According to them, the main topic should be the economic agenda, bilateral cooperation and the BRICS, a bloc of emerging countries formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
To supporters, Bolsonaro said he should only address the Ukrainian crisis if Putin brings the matter up.
Even so, his visit to Putin generated reactions in the US government.
In a statement released by the US State Department, the country said that “Brazil has a responsibility to uphold democratic principles and protect the rule-based order, and to reinforce this message to Russia at every opportunity.”
The statement was understood as a sign of the US government’s opposition to Bolsonaro’s trip to Russia amid the Ukraine crisis.
