Associated Press

World Summits’ ‘Family Photos’ Show Putin’s Isolation

Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center rear, joins G7 world leaders at a working session on the final day of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Sunday, May 21, 2023.

11:29 JST, May 22, 2023

They’re known as “family photos,” the images of world leaders posed in faux relaxation during global summits.

And like portraits of a family that has isolated a dysfunctional member, recent “family photos” from the G7 and G8 — the world’s most industrialized nations — show how Russian President Vladimir Putin has been outcast.

The Russian president has faced unprecedented international isolation since his nation invaded Ukraine in February 2022. An International Criminal Court arrest warrant hangs over his head and clouds his prospects of traveling to many destinations, including those viewed as Moscow’s allies.

It was only 10 years ago when Putin stood proudly among his peers at the time -– former U.S. President Barack Obama, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — at a Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland. But Russia has since been kicked out of the group, which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States, for illegally annexing Crimea in 2014.

Images from the G7 summit this year show leaders of the same governments, minus Putin.