The Valdai Club meeting was moved from Sochi to the Moscow region because of Ukrainian drones

The Valdai Club announced its annual meeting on Monday and said on its website that this year it will take place in the Moscow region.

Usually, this event was held in Sochi in the autumn. About 120 invitees learned about the venue change back in August, although they had initially received invitations to Sochi.

Financial Times, citing four sources familiar with the situation, writes that the move is linked to security concerns amid intensified Ukrainian drone attacks. Two of the newspaper’s interlocutors said the change of venue was insisted upon by the security service of the President of Russia.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov and the Valdai Club did not respond to Financial Times requests for comment on the reasons for the move. The publication notes that this indicates the Kremlin’s growing concern about the risk to Vladimir Putin from medium- and long-range Ukrainian drones.

Russian President Vladimir Putin traditionally speaks on the final day of the annual Valdai meeting and holds a lengthy question-and-answer session.

Sources

• Agency. News