Putin Invited to Miami G20 Summit, as EU Insists Russia's Seat Comes With Conditions
Russia remains a full member of the G20 and retains the right to participate in both ministerial and leaders' meetings, the European Commission said this week, a statement of principle issued as the Kremlin confirmed it has received, and welcomed, a U.S. invitation for President Vladimir Putin to attend the group's summit in Miami on December 14–15.
"According to the Commission's spokesman, the G20 remains an important forum for discussing global challenges, including issues arising from Russia's war in Ukraine. Since 2022, the EU has used the group's meetings to press Moscow to end the conflict, and, the spokesman indicated, that position will not change regardless of who sits around the table.
A 52-minute conversation and an invitation
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that Washington has formally invited Putin to the Miami summit. He made the announcement after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, a conversation that lasted 52 minutes.
"We have invited President Putin to the G-20. We believe this is an opportunity for him to talk not only with our president, but with other world leaders. We hope that he will accept the invitation and that in December such a meeting will take place," Rubio said.
The secretary of state cautioned, however, that a follow-up meeting between Putin and President Donald Trump has not yet been agreed.
Kremlin: grateful, but undecided
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow has the opportunity to take part in the Miami summit, where Putin could meet Trump again, but that no decision has been made.
"So far it is premature to talk about this; a decision has not yet been made. We really accept this kind invitation with gratitude. We value it, and it will be considered," Peskov told journalists, quoted by the BBC.
The spokesman stressed that whatever Putin decides, Russia intends to be represented at the forum.
"Participation can be at the highest level or at a lower, working level. But in all cases, Russia intends to continue its participation as effectively as possible," Peskov said, adding that the question would be worked through diplomatic channels.
Why Russia's seat still matters
Russia has been part of the G20 since the forum's creation in 1999 and was suspended from the smaller G8 in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea, but it has never lost its G20 seat. Precedent for flexible attendance is well established: when the G20 met in Bali in 2022, a year into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin stayed home and sent Lavrov in his place, a formula repeated at the New Delhi summit in 2023. Peskov's "highest level or working level" formulation suggests Moscow is keeping precisely that fallback open.
The EU's message, delivered the same week, is aimed at that scenario: Russia's presence at any table will not soften the bloc's diplomatic pressure. Putin and Trump last met in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025. If the Russian leader accepts, Miami would host their first face-to-face encounter since, and the first between a Russian and American president on U.S. soil in a setting where America's Western allies are in the room.