Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Hanoi this week, Vietnamese and Russian state media said on June 17. The visit comes after Vietnam skipped the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland on June 15-16 but sent a deputy foreign minister to a BRICS meeting in Russia earlier in the same week. Putin is expected to meet Vietnam’s new president To Lam and other leaders during the two-day visit to Hanoi on June 19-20, officials said. Meanwhile, the US, which upgraded relations with Hanoi in 2023 and is Vietnam’s top trading partner, reacted harshly.