MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have discussed the Summit for Democracy organized by the US during a video summit, with both leaders agreeing that such events are counterproductive, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told journalists following the video summit on Wednesday.
"The leaders touched on the Summit for Democracy held recently at Washington’s initiative. Both the [Russian] president and the [Chinese] chairman were united in their assessments that the event from the start was conceived as [a confrontational] one. Which it actually turned out to be," the Kremlin aide pointed out.
As the diplomat noted, the Chinese leader said that the "negative charge of the American idea, the focus of this idea on imposing new division lines" was obvious. "Putin and Xi Jinping emphasized that all of this is very counterproductive, especially in the current complex international situation," the Kremlin official concluded.
The US-hosted virtual Summit for Democracy with the participation of countries’ leaders, human rights activists and businessmen was held on December 9-10. Washington invited 110 countries and territories to take part. China, Russia, Turkey, Egypt and a number of other countries were not invited. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the US initiative for convening this summit as a "get-together" and "one of Washington’s most odious projects." According to the Russian top diplomat, the goal of this event was to "divide people, countries, into democratic and undemocratic ones."