STRELNA, Oct 7 An informal summit of CIS leaders is being held in St. Petersburg on Friday, The meeting was organized at the Konstantinovsky Palace, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, said. Earlier, Peskov called the summit in St. Petersburg an important event in the context of preparations for the CIS summit scheduled for next week in Astana. Peskov also did not rule out that foreign government leaders participating in the St. Petersburg summit would congratulate Putin on his birthday at an informal meeting. 11Relations between the CIS countries are developing in the spirit of partnership, Putin said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov. This is not the first time that the CIS summit has been held in an informal setting. The last meeting was held in 2021 and also in St. Petersburg. Then Putin invited colleagues to the northern capital before the New Year — December 28. In September, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Putin would take part in Astana in October at a meeting on interaction and confidence building measures in Asia and at the CIS summit, and also hold a meeting at the highest level in the «Russia-Central Asia» format. Later, Peskov, answering a question about Putin's visit to Astana, said that it was too early to ask questions about this, but plans had not changed. , 09:56Lavrov spoke about the demand for the CIS
