Russia Weighs U.S. Invitation for Putin to Attend G20 Summit in Florida

Russia has welcomed the U.S. government's invitation for President Vladimir Putin to attend a G20 summit in Florida later this year, saying it "truly" appreciates the offer, but has not yet decided whether to accept it.

The invite stoked outcry in Europe, where governments have been rearming since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he feared Russia would view it as "encouragement to continue its aggressive policies," while the European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said it was "really very, very hard to understand this treatment" of Putin.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said the White House had invited Putin to a G20 meeting in Miami in December, where he could potentially hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.

"We think it is an opportunity for him to engage, not just with the president but with other world leaders. We hope that is an invitation he'll accept," Rubio told reporters. "If there is another opportunity for them to meet and there is a purpose behind the meeting, that would be good," he added.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow "truly" appreciates the "kind" invitation.

"We value it. It will be worked on and then agreed upon, and a corresponding decision will be made," Peskov told reporters, according to Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

Diplomatic talks to find a peaceful solution to the war have stalled in recent months as the U.S. has shifted focus to its war against Iran, although negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff traveled to Ukraine for the first time for talks with Zelenskyy earlier this month.

In an interview with Sky News, the EU's Kallas said the U.S. invitation to Putin needed to be discussed with political leaders across the 27-nation bloc.

"But it's clearly, I think, the wrong path to normalize people who are starting wars, who are going against the UN charter, who are killing and giving orders to kill civilians, to ignore the international humanitarian law, to cause as much damage and suffering to people that they can," Kallas said.

"By normalising this, believe me, we will have more of it around the world," she added.