FT: Ukraine drone threat forces Putin to relocate Valdai forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved his flagship foreign policy conference from Sochi to Moscow amid growing security concerns over Ukraine’s intensifying drone campaign, Financial Times reports.

The last-minute change affects this year’s four-day meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, scheduled to take place outside the Russian capital in late September and early October. The conference’s 120 participants were informed last month that the venue had been changed after initially receiving invitations for Sochi, a Black Sea resort where Putin maintains a residence. Two of the sources said the relocation was made at the insistence of Putin’s presidential security service.

Ukraine has targeted oil refineries near Sochi and other Black Sea resorts during the summer. According to Russian news outlet Agentstvo, at least 19 people have been killed and 188 injured in such attacks since the tourist season began in May.

Putin has not visited Sochi since last year’s Valdai Club conference in early October and has travelled to the region only twice a year over the past two years. This marks a sharp decline from 2021, when he visited Sochi 24 times.

The Valdai Club announced this year’s forum on September 14 without mentioning the venue change. The event, which serves as a showcase for the Kremlin’s foreign policy, will feature discussions on “how manageable and predictable international affairs can be against the backdrop of the crisis facing multilateral institutions”.

Among the scheduled speakers are Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Putin’s economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin. Putin traditionally holds an extended question-and-answer session on the final day of the forum.

The venue change underscores growing Kremlin concerns that Putin could be vulnerable to Ukraine’s medium- and long-range drone strikes. Kyiv has increasingly targeted Russian energy and logistics infrastructure deep inside the country, including areas more than 3,000 kilometres from Ukraine.

A Ukrainian strike hit a refinery near Sochi’s international airport on September 11, disrupting flights and sending a large plume of black smoke over the city.

This year, Putin has spent most of his time in Moscow, St Petersburg and his residence near Lake Valdai in northern Russia, after which the annual forum is named. Moscow accused Ukraine of targeting the Valdai residence late last year but provided no evidence to substantiate the claim.

By Vafa Guliyeva