Putin won’t attend upcoming G-20 summit

JAKARTA, INDONESIA >> Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next week, an Indonesian government official said Thursday, avoiding a possible confrontation with the United States and its allies over his war in Ukraine. Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the chief of support for G-20 events, said Putin’s decision not to come was “the best for all of us.”

U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are to attend the two-day summit that starts Tuesday. The summit would have been the first time Biden and Putin were together at a gathering since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.