(Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tajikistan in Central Asia on Wednesday to attend meetings with leaders of other ex-Soviet republics likely to focus on regional development and their relations with Moscow.

A Kremlin announcement said Putin would take part, beginning Thursday, in a Russia-Central Asia summit, also to be attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

They will then be joined by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus at a meeting of the broader Commonwealth of Independent States bringing together former Soviet republics.

Putin limits his foreign travel in connection with an order for his arrest by the International Criminal Court issued over the deportation of Ukrainian children in the more than 3-1/2-year-old

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