Turkmenistan. Vladimir Putin met with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian

Officially, the forum “Interconnections of times and civilizations – the basis of peace and development” is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and philosopher Mahtumkuli and was originally planned as an informal summit of the leaders of the Organization of Turkic States.

For unknown reasons, his status was downgraded to forum. For this reason, the leader canceled his arrival Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan – Radio Swoboda reports.

The Turkmenistan government website announced on Friday, the day of the event, that it was a “summit of the CIS countries”. It is known that the forum was attended by – apart from Putin and Pezeshkan – the leaders of Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan; not all of these countries belong to the CIS.

“We actively cooperate in the international arena, and our assessments of current events in the world are often very similar,” Putin said during his meeting with the president. Iran. It was their first meeting. It is also known that both leaders discussed bilateral issues as well as the situation in the Middle East.

Last week, Russian media reported that an agreement between them was ready to be signed Russia and Iran regarding comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, and the question of where and how to sign it is currently being considered.

Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, said that this may take place on the occasion of the BRICS summit in Kazan, which will be held on October 22-24.

It is known that Iran cooperates with Russia, selling it, among others, deadly Shahed drones, used by the Russian army to attack targets on Ukraine.

In connection with Putin's visit to Ashgabat, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the Turkmenistan authorities to arrest the Russian leader “in accordance with international standards.”

Turkmenistan is not a signatory to the Rome Statute under which International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed hope that Ashgabat would continue to comply with the “norms of international law” and the ICC decisions.

However, there is little chance of Putin's arrest, especially since he recently visited Mongolia, which signed the Rome Statute, and was not detained.

“Ukraine hopes that Turkmenistan's leaders realize that Putin is a war criminal. Putin and his supporters are responsible for aggression against Ukraine, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, murder, torture, rape, looting, shelling of civilian infrastructure and other atrocities committed by Russian occupiers on the territory of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

“We call on all countries that value human life, international law and the United Nations Charter to refrain from organizing joint events with Putin, who has unleashed a war in Europe on a scale unknown since World War II and whose hands are dipped in blood up to the elbows.” – transferred.

A Turkmen political scientist, hiding under the pseudonym Serdar Ajtakov, quoted by the Radio Svoboda website, expressed the suspicion that an important economic initiative may be announced at the forum.

– A regional 'gas initiative' may be announced involving Russia, Turkmenistan, Iran, and perhaps also Afghanistan and Pakistan. The recent visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to Iran, the statement of the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov at the recent CIS summit in Moscow about the need to develop the gas market and its transport to the CIS and beyond, already concluded gas agreements between Turkmenistan and Iran, the upcoming signing of the “grand agreement” between Russia and Iran, as well as the visit of the Russian delegation to Pakistan this week and the announcement of Putin's visit to Qatar, suggest that it is possible that such a “gas initiative” will be announced in the near future, perhaps at the forum in Ashgabat – the political scientist supposes.