This year, Russia will not actually hold an informal summit of the CIS countries, instead, Moscow has invited all the leaders of the Commonwealth countries to the horse races for the Russian president's prize to be held at the Central racecourse on July 18, Vedomosti newspaper reported with reference to a source in the Kremlin.
"The political subtext of activities on maximum reduced to nothing: who is interested in horse races, and he will come," the newspaper quoted the source.
However, another member of the presidential administration said that any event as part of which such people holds an informal communication could be seen as an informal summit, the newspaper reported.
Not all 11 leaders of the CIS countries will arrive in Moscow: as for July 14, only the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Moldova confirmed their participation in the event, writes the newspaper. All these countries, except Tajikistan, put forward their horses in races. Moreover, the presidents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose independence was recognized only by two countries - Russia and Nicaragua will also attend the event, writes RIA Novosti.
As part of the event, the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan will hold a meeting in which the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement may be discussed with the participation of the Russian president.
Meanwhile, the newspaper writes, the Presidents of Ukraine and Turkmenistan Viktor Yushchenko and Gurbangulu Berdymuhamedov will not attend the Moscow horse races.
"Russia is not prepared to conduct full-fledged bilateral meeting with the two presidents. In this regard, Viktor Yushchenko's participation in the race is under doubt," the newspaper quoted an official of the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow. A relative's disease prevented the Turkmen leader's arrival in Moscow, according to the newspaper.
All presidents attended three previous informal CIS summits. Summer Summit 2007 was timed to the Petersburg Economic Forum, an extraordinary summit in February was Vladimir Putin's farewell summit as the president with his counterparts, and the June meeting 2008 in St. Petersburg was Dmitry Medvedev's debut as the president.
