Putin and Iraqi PM to discuss Middle East situation in Kremlin meeting

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks in the Kremlin on Tuesday with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani on bilateral issues and the developing situation in the Middle East, the Kremlin said late on Monday.

“Issues of developing multifaceted Russian-Iraqi cooperation, as well as current topics on the international agenda, primarily the situation in the Middle East, will be discussed in detail,” the Kremlin said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

The meeting will take place against the backdrop of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza that has seen hundreds killed on both sides since the weekend.

Putin, who will be meeting Sudani for the first time, said last week that he expected the meeting to be “productive and timely.”

Sudani, who is on a two-day trip to Moscow, will meet Putin again on Wednesday when both will participate in an energy forum, the Kremlin added.

Russian investments in Iraq are believed to be worth more than $10 billion, mostly in the oil industry.

Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft has been making deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq since at least 2017, pumping billions of dollars there in oil producing and shipping infrastructure.

Russia’s Lukoil now produces some 480,000 barrels per day of oil at Iraq’s southern West Qurna 2 oilfield, while Russia’s Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of the gas giant Gazprom, is involved in the Badra oil field project in eastern Iraq and two fields in Iraqi Kurdistan.