Putin Scraps Summit on Lack of Attendance From Arab Leaders

(Bloomberg) -- There simply weren’t enough Arab leaders saying ‘yes’ to warrant holding a summit. That’s what forced Russian President Vladimir Putin into a last-minute delay of an event he’d hoped would boost his standing in the region.

The debut Russia-Arab conference was scheduled to be held in Moscow on Oct. 15. The Kremlin had viewed it as one of the year’s most important foreign-policy initiatives, intended to signal to Western leaders, especially US President Donald Trump, that Russia enjoys support and influence across the Arab World, a person familiar with the preparations for the event said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

“It will depend on how the situation develops in the context of implementing Trump’s plan and so on,” Putin’s foreign policy aid