By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent, at the BRICS summit in Kazan
Antonio Guterres hasn’t been shy about coming to Russia.
He seemed happy to be filmed on arrival at the BRICS summit in Kazan, pausing in front of the cameras to take a big bite of chak-chak.
It’s a popular delicacy from the Tatarstan region – strips of deep-fried dough that are smothered in hot honey and moulded into a ball. It’s sticky and extremely sweet.
Other dignitaries were offered the same thing when they turned up, but none seemed to enjoy it as much as the UN secretary general. He nodded as he chewed, showing his appreciation.
For Ukraine, though, there’s no sugar-coating his visit.
Kyiv is furious, accusing him of showing tacit support for “war criminal Putin”.
Adding to their bitterness is the fact Guterres declined Ukraine’s invitation to a peace summit in Switzerland on the war earlier this year.
Going to Russia was the “wrong choice”, Ukraine’s foreign ministry fumed, saying it only “damages the UN’s reputation”.
The imagery from the summit will certainly be jarring for Kyiv and its allies – Guterres among the leaders listening to Russia’s president as he put the world to rights, and sought to cast himself as a global peacemaker.
The Middle East is “on the brink” of full-scale war, Putin warned his guests, as he called for an end to the violence in the region.
That might seem a bit rich coming from the Kremlin leader, with Moscow simultaneously waging war a little more than 600 miles away in Ukraine.
But that conflict hasn’t been condemned here, at least not in the open.
Some leaders have raised it in their meetings with Putin – India’s Modi, China’s Xi and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. But the language was soft, and Ukraine was mentioned only once in the summit’s 43-page final communique.
But could these conversations on the sidelines, and Guterres’s presence, hint that something’s afoot? That Moscow could be more open to a peace agreement?
Ahead of the summit, the Reuters news agency reported that talk of a ceasefire deal is growing in Moscow, citing two Russian sources.
As for Guterres, the UN chief helped broker the landmark deal that allowed Ukraine grain exports to resume in 2022.
And after previously criticising Russia’s invasion, this will be his first meeting with Vladimir Putin in more than two years.
You’d think there must be a reason he’s come all this way, and incurred Ukraine’s wrath, other than for the chak-chak?
Kyiv may not be happy, but Guterres has the EU’s backing, with Brussels saying it “trusts” him to call on Putin to stop the war.
