For the first time in more than 20 years, Russia will not send an official delegation to the Munich Security Conference

There will be no official delegation from Russia at this year’s Munich Security Conference, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced during a briefing on Wednesday, February 9. 

Zakharova asserted that “in recent years, the conference has been increasingly transforming into a transatlantic forum, losing its inclusiveness and objectivity.” She added that “in Moscow, interest in this event has noticeably dropped.”

According to Kommersant, Russia decided not to send an official delegation to Munich because of the six-day quarantine period for those who haven’t been vaccinated with an EU-approved vaccine, as well as due to “annoyance” over critical remarks about Russia’s foreign policy made by the event’s organizers. 

Kommersant reported that the Russian delegation to the conference was supposed to include Sberbank CEO Herman Gref, the president of the All-Russian Union of Insurers Igor Yurgens, and the president of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations Alexander Dynkin. 

The Munich Security Conference is scheduled to take place from February 18–20. 

Russia has participated in the Munich Security Conference since 1999. President Vladimir Putin has attended the forum only once, in 2007. There, he delivered his so-called “Munich speech,” criticizing “unipolarity,” as well as the United States and NATO. This speech is considered a turning point in the deterioration of relations between Russia and Western countries. 

Since 2010, the Russian delegation at the Munich Conference has been led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (except for in 2016, when then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended the forum). In 2021, the conference was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.