ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is expected to have high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
The KRG announced the PM is “expected to have some high level talks, including a one-on-one meeting with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.”
Barzani will also attend a Victory Day event in Moscow on Wednesday to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Soviet Union and its allies’ victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 to conclude World War II.
Barzani was officially invited for the event by the office of Putin and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, according to the KRG.
Russian energy giant Rosneft has operations in the Kurdistan Region.
Barzani met separately with Sechin and Putin in June 2017 on the sidelines of an oil conference. Kurdistan's Ministry of Natural Resources signed a contract with Russia’s Rosneft for the exploration of oil, commerce and production of hydrocarbons.
Parties in Iraq, specifically Dawa, objected to the deal, saying it needed to be studied.
Iraq will hold elections on Saturday.
Barzani is deputy head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which currently holds the most seats among Kurdish parties in the Iraqi parliament.
Nouri al-Maliki, the leader Dawa and the former prime minister of Iraq, is heading the powerful State of Law Coalition.
Haider al-Abadi, a senior member in Dawa and incumbent prime minister of Iraq, split from Maliki's coalition and is heading the Nasr (Victory) Coalition.
The Kurdistan Region's exportation of oil independent of Baghdad and an independence referendum prefaced Abadi's takeover of oil-rich Kirkuk by Iraqi forces supported by Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries in October 2017.
Rosneft has continued to do business in the Kurdistan Region.
Relevant analysis: Future of Kurdistan’s energy sector in hands of Rosneft
