Russian president commits to attending 2022 Games in Beijing

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the Winter Olympics in Beijing next year, the first major head of state to make the commitment amid calls for a diplomatic boycott over human rights issues.

Moscow also hoped Putin would hold an in-person summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the state-run Tass news agency reported Thursday, citing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Some politicians in the West, including U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have called for a diplomatic boycott of the games — refusing to send an official delegation while letting foreign athletes compete — over human rights issues. The U.S. has said China’s treatment of Uyghurs in its far western Xinjiang region amounts to genocide and warned investors about the risks of doing business in Hong Kong as Beijing tightens its political grip.

Late last year, the two leaders vowed to strengthen “strategic coordination” as the world enters “an era of global turbulence,” a reference to the challenges posed by the U.S.

Beijing is gearing up for a series of training and competitions in the fourth quarter to test winter game facilities and COVID-19 protocols.

China has taken a zerotolerance approach to COVID-19, requiring quarantines of up to 21 days for international arrivals and clamping down on any local flare-ups. Those measures would create obstacles if carried over to the games in February given some 32,000 people — athletes, team officials, members of the media and sponsors and their guests — would be expected to travel for the events under normal circumstances.