Putin to lead Russian delegation at 70th session of UN General Assembly

Russian President Vladimir Putin will lead the Russian delegation at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly that will be held in New York City in September.

A presidential resolution on this point was published on Friday at the official portal of legal information.

The document confirms the delegation consisting of 10 people and led by the president. Among other delegates are Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his deputy Gennady Gatilov, presidential aide Yury Ushakov, Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev, State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs chairman Alexey Pushkov, Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin, Foreign Ministry’s department of international organizations head Alexander Pankin and Foreign Ministry’s department on non-proliferation and arms control director Mikhail Ulyanov.
The 70th session of the UN General Assembly will open in New York on September 15. In the framework of the session, a summit will take place on September 25-27 where it is planned to adopt a resolution on development agenda after 2015. The session will finish its work on October 6.

In recent years, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been leading the Russian delegations to the General Assembly sessions. President Dmitry Medvedev addressed the UN in 2009.

Vladimir Putin attended the opening of the General Assembly session in 2005 when the organization turned 60 years old.
Putin, Obama may meet on sidelines of UN General Assembly session

US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland earlier told TASS that she couldn't make any official announcements regarding possible contacts between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama.
"I don't have anything to announce today. Obviously, those will be White House decisions to make," Nuland said, noting however that the US government expected President Obama to participate in "a number of multilateral events" on the sidelines of the UNGA session that coincides with 70th anniversary of the founding of the world body. "Some of them may bring the President [Obama] and President Putin together," she said.

The diplomat added she believed "what's most important now, particularly with regard to the situation on the ground in Ukraine, which has become more dangerous over the last few weeks, is that we use time between now and UNGA to communicate clearly, to seek a de-escalation, to conclude the heavy weapons withdrawal that Minsk calls for, so that we can get back to the rest of Minsk implementation."
Source: Itar-Tass