INTERNATIONAL: Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend a G20 summit being hosted by Indonesia later this year, Russia's ambassador in Jakarta has said on Wednesday ,March 23, dismissing suggestions by some members that the country be barred from the group.

The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia was suspended from what was then known as the Group of Eight (G8) club of leading economies after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. However the G20 is a much broader grouping that includes India, China, Brazil and others and any move to exclude Russia could struggle to find unanimity.

The Kremlin on Wednesday ,March 23m has accused the United States of putting pressure on other countries regarding Russia's membership in the Group of Twenty (G20) major economies, but said some powers were sticking to their sovereign points of view.

Talking of an idea of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov has said Poland's idea was reckless and extremely dangerous. Any possible contact between the Russian military and NATO forces could have grave consequences, Peskov has made that clea. He has also added the military operation was developing and conducted according to plan.

Russian Ambassador to Indonesia, Lyudmila Vorobieva says; "As you know, not only G20, many organisations now, the west, are trying to expel Russia. Actually what they’re doing, the WTO, the customs organisation ,so what they are trying to do is to actually to destroy the whole trade and logistics system that has been so painstakingly built in the last decades. The question is why? The reaction of the west is absolutely unproportional."

Vorobieva has added "G20 is not a forum to discuss, or to solve this kind of crisis, actually it's a forum aimed at improving economic situations and solving economic mostly problems. And of course expulsion of Russia from this kind of forum will not help these economic problems to be resolved. On the contrary, without Russia it would be difficult to do so.”

“Putin’s attendance to G20 will depend on many things, including the COVID situation, that is getting better. But, so far, his intention is to... he wants to come,” the Russian envoy has said.

^{PHOTO: SOUNDBITES FROM RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO INDONESIA LYUDMILA VOROBIEVA SPEAKING AT NEWS CONFERENCE}