Financial Times: Valdai Club meeting moved from Sochi to Moscow region over threat of Ukrainian strikes

The Valdai discussion club has moved its annual meeting from Sochi to the Moscow region because of the threat of strikes by Ukrainian forces, the Financial Times reported.

The outlet’s sources said Sochi initially appeared in invitations sent to participants, but organizers informed them of a change in the meeting’s location in late August. Two sources told FT that Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO) insisted on the move.

As of mid-September, the event’s website states that the XXIII Annual Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club will take place in the Moscow region from September 28 to October 1, under the theme “Responsibility for the Future: The Limits of the Possible or Possibilities Without Limit?”

The relocation is further evidence of the growing threat posed by Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory, FT wrote.

Putin himself now rarely visits Sochi, where he keeps one of his residences, the outlet said. By journalists’ count, he has traveled there only twice over the past two years — most recently in October 2025, when he attended the Valdai Club meeting. In 2021, before the start of the full-scale war, Putin visited Sochi 24 times.

The Valdai discussion club was founded in 2004 by several experts, including political scientist Sergei Karaganov. Russian officials, foreign politicians, and journalists take part in the club’s sessions. Vladimir Putin usually attends once a year.

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly struck targets on Russia’s Black Sea coast, including an oil refinery in Sochi. On the evening of September 9, Ukrainian sea drones attacked the Sochi waterfront, and about 30 people were injured.