DOMINANT ANGLE
Lisbon questions the meaning of the invitation extended to a leader who has been the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court since 2023, while Moscow already refuses to see it as a simple pause in the war.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Washington has formally invited Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit on December 14 and 15, 2026, in Miami, Marco Rubio announced on September 23 after a meeting with Sergey Lavrov in New York.
- 02
Putin has not personally attended a G20 summit since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in 2023, according to the Jornal Económico.
- 03
Sergey Lavrov stated before the UN Security Council that Russia will not suspend its military operation during any potential negotiations with Ukraine.
ANALYSIS
Lisbon, September 24, 2026. The formal invitation extended by Washington to Vladimir Putin for the G20 summit, to be held on December 14 and 15 in Miami, is seen by the Portuguese press less as a gesture of openness and more as an unanswered question: since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president in 2023, he has not attended a G20 summit in person, recalls the Jornal Económico. Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, announced the invitation on Wednesday, September 23, in New York, after a closed-door meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. He presented this gesture as an opportunity for Putin to dialogue not only with Donald Trump but also with other leaders, hoping it "will be accepted". Rubio defended his logic: one must meet with people one disagrees with to resolve problems, rather than only gathering those who already agree. Asked about a possible energy truce, he stated that Moscow and Kiev had both shown interest in a limited ceasefire covering grains and energy. At the time of publication of these articles, the Kremlin had not officially reacted to the announcement, while Sergei Lavrov, at the UN Security Council, warned that Russia "will not interrupt" its military operation during any negotiations, accusing Europeans of seeking only a tactical pause to rearm Kiev. The Portuguese press links this firmness to the only known precedent between Putin and Trump: their meeting in Alaska on August 15, 2025, which remained without concrete results after the American proposal, initially accepted by Moscow, was rejected by European leaders. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also assured that Volodymyr Zelensky's security would be guaranteed if he traveled to Moscow, while judging that a Russian-American summit organized without preparatory work would be "a waste of time". According to the Jornal Económico, neither the Kremlin nor Zelensky had commented on the invitation itself at the time of publication.