Moscow - President Vladimir Putin is slated to attend the 2nd Summit of Caspian States in the Iranian capital Tehran on October 16, amid international controversy over Iran's nuclear programme, Kremlin spokesman Dimtri Peskov told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Monday.
Any official visit by Putin to Iran is certain to excite international attention, with growing fears in the west that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to build nuclear weapons at the Bushehr atomic power plant which Russia has helped to build.
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Putin could be expected to discuss the Bushehr reactor and sanctions, which Russia opposes, on the sidelines of the conference.
Analyst Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of journal Russia In Global Affairs, anticipated that Putin's plan to meet with his French and German counterparts in separate bilateral talks this week were possibly part of an effort to formulate a proposal to take to Iran.
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'Putin is going to the 2nd Summit of Caspian States in Tehran. This will, of course, be a very important pretext for addressing these issues (Iran) with the French president,' Peskov said of the agenda for French President Nicholas Sarkozy's two-day meeting with Putin from Tuesday.
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Deutsche Presse-Agentur
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1363504.php/Putin_to_attend_Caspian_summit_in_Tehran