Ever since it was initially announced that Vladimir Putin would be invited to the G20 summit in Indonesia this month, things have been a bit awkward and tense, to say the least. Given how many nations are currently engaged in economic warfare against Russia (to little noticeable effect), having Mad Vlad roaming around and shaking everyone’s hands was going to result in some difficult optics. Putin was no doubt aware of all of this but continued to insist that he would attend, perhaps because he doesn’t get the chance to get out of his country very often these days. But now that situation seems to have changed. According to multiple reports, Putin is either “unlikely” to attend or he’s already canceled the trip definitively. But the possibility is being left open that he might attend “virtually.” (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin will join next week’s G20 leaders summit “if the situation is possible”, his Indonesian counterpart and the meeting’s host said on Tuesday, adding that Putin could attend virtually instead.

Joko Widodo, who is this year’s chair of the bloc of major economies, said Putin during a phone conversation last week had not ruled out attending the summit in Bali, and would join if possible.

“But if not … maybe he’ll ask to do it virtually,” Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is popularly known, told reporters during a visit to Bali. He did not elaborate.

The Reuters report claims that Putin is still open to attending the summit “if it’s possible.” But Bloomberg, citing a different source, is reporting that the cancelation is already a done deal. Putin will not be attending. They did not specifically rule out the possibility of a video conference, however.

Putin was already set up to look like the skunk at the garden party if he shows up in Bali, and nobody expects the G20 to miraculously come up with a way to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. How would other world leaders be expected to act around him when he’s supposedly under “maximum sanctions” and being punished over the war in Ukraine? Russia remains one of the world’s major economies, so the nation would traditionally have a seat at the table, but the fault for the war in Ukraine is being placed squarely on Putin’s shoulders personally.

Some of the first concerns over Putin possibly attending the summit arose when we learned that Ukrainian President Zelensky was being invited also. It’s difficult to imagine the two of them shaking hands and talking about international trade negotiations while citizens in both of their countries are being killed on the battlefield.

More awkwardness was expected if Putin and Joe Biden ran into each other. We learned last month that Biden’s staff was already working on complicated plans to try to ensure that Uncle Joe and Mad Vlad were never even in the same room with each other. Even showing up in the same photo was to be avoided. How they planned to manage that wasn’t made clear. But if this week’s story is accurate they won’t need to worry about it anymore.

The more we see Vladimir Putin being invited to international events with other world leaders, the more pointless all of the sanctions and everything else will seem. Allowing Putin to simply waltz back onto the world stage is just going to normalize the Russian invasion of Ukraine as something unpleasant but unavoidable. It’s true that there have been some rumblings about possible peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv, but that hasn’t happened yet. Either Putin is being shut out of the affairs of the rest of the world (except his allies in the Axis of Evil) or he isn’t. Make up our minds already.