Putin to Meet New Japanese PM, Visit BritainRussian President-elect Vladimir Putin and new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori agreed on Monday to meet in St. Petersburg on April 29.During a telephone conversation, the two leaders discussed preparations for Mori's visit to Russia, Mori's first foreign trip as prime minister, said the Interfax news agency in Moscow. Mori congratulated Putin on his strong victory in the presidential elections and thanked him for his warm congratulatory message on the occasion of Mori's rise to premiership, said the report. Meanwhile, a Kremlin source confirmed the Itar-Tass report on Monday that President-elect Vladimir Putin would visit London next week on his first trip to the West since taking over from Boris Yeltsin on December 31. Itar-Tass news agency said Putin, who won the presidential election on March 26, would arrive in London late on Sunday April 16 and return to Moscow the next evening. "I can confirm the visit is taking place," the source said. The source said Putin would meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair but was not able to confirm he would meet Britain's Queen Elizabeth, as Tass reported. When Putin became acting president -- and commander-in-chief of the world's second largest nuclear arsenal -- he remained prime minister and said he would not travel abroad because both leaders do not leave the country at the same time. He has so far stuck to this and will not appoint a separate prime minister until after his May 7 inauguration. A Kremlin source said Putin would explain soon why it would now be possible for the president-elect to travel abroad even though he is still prime minister as well. The source said the self-imposed ban had more to do with pre-election political sensitivities than constitutional constraints. |
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