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Putin arrives in Cairo to hold talks with Sisi

Arab World Materials 9 February 2015 23:22 (UTC +04:00)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo to hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart.
Putin arrives in Cairo to hold talks with Sisi

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo to hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Press TV reported.

According to reports on Monday, Putin and his high-ranking delegation were greeted by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi at Cairo International Airport.

The two leaders are scheduled to sign several agreements and attend a joint press conference on Tuesday.

"The leaders will pay special attention to ramping up trade and economic ties between the two countries," read a Kremlin statement issued ahead of the visit.

Earlier in the day, Putin said during an interview with Egypt's al-Ahram daily newspaper that Moscow and Cairo may soon abandon the US dollar in bilateral trade and use their national currencies instead.

The Russian leader added that the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to more than USD 4.5 billion, a figure nearly 50 percent up from the previous year.

Russia is one of the main non-Arab supporters of Sisi's government and was among the first countries to express endorsement for Sisi's presidential bid in 2014.

Sisi, for his part, visited Moscow soon after the ouster of Egypt's first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in a military coup in July 2013.

He made another visit to the European country in August 2014 after he won the presidential election as anticipated.

Putin's visit comes amid the right groups' mounting criticism of Sisi for launching a heavy-handed crackdown on anti-government protesters and stifling freedom of speech in the Arab country.

Rights groups say the crackdown on Morsi's supporters has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested, while hundreds have been sentenced to death in mass trials.

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