Dubai, Dec 6: Russian President Vladimir Putin began a trip on Wednesday to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, hoping to shore up support in the Mideast from two major oil producers allied to the US as his war on Ukraine grinds on. Putin landed in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms now hosting the United Nations’ COP28 climate talks.
It marked his first trip to the region from before the coronavirus pandemic and the war – and as he faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the war in Ukraine.
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE has signed the ICC founding treaty, meaning they don’t face any obligation to detain Putin over the warrant accusing him of being personally responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine during his war on the country. Putin skipped a summit in South Africa over concerns he could be arrested on arrival there.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s foreign minister, met a smiling Putin after he bounded down the stairs of his presidential plane.
As he arrived at Abu Dhabi’s Qasr al-Watan palace to meet Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s ruler, the UAE’s military acrobatics team flew in formation with red, white and blue smoke trailing them in the colours of the Russian flag. Soldiers on horseback and with camels lined his arrival route, Russian and Emirati flags also hanging from lightpoles.
The pageantry in the Emirates, which relies on America as its major security partner, highlights the UAE’s expansive business ties to Russia that have exploded in the time since grinding Western sanctions have targeted Moscow.
Ukrainians on hand for the event expressed outrage over Putin being in the country. They described him as committing environmental crimes in their country. “It is extremely upsetting to see how the world treats war criminals, because that’s what he is, in my opinion,” said Marharyta Bohdanova, a worker at the Ukrainian pavilion at the United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai, wiping away tears. (AP)
