G20 summit: Putin leaves early ‘to catch up on sleep’

Russian president Vladimir Putin left the G20 summit a day early on Sunday, after assuring world leaders that there was a good chance of resolving the conflict in Ukraine. Justifying his early departure Putin said: ‘It will take nine hours to fly to Vladivostok and another eight hours to get Moscow. I need four hours sleep before I get back to work on Monday. We have completed our business.’ However the summit feels that the real reason is the ‘tense’ 50-minute meeting between Putin and Cameron over the weekend and subsequent frosty meetings with other world leaders - German chancellor and French president. Putin said, ‘the situation in Ukraine in my view has good chances for resolution, no matter how strange it may sound, but certain structures had been established on both sides’.