Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing heads to Russia for official visit, state media reports

Aug 17 (Reuters) – Myanmar junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing left for Russia on Monday for his first official visit to the country since he assumed the presidency in April, according to state media.

• Russia will be the fifth country Min Aung Hlaing has visited since becoming president, with official trips to India, China, Laos, and earlier this month, Thailand.

• The former general is the subject of a raft of Western sanctions and has been on a quest for international legitimacy since winning a vote in parliament to become president, which came after an election dominated by an army-backed party in the absence of a viable opposition.

• Min Aung Hlaing made four visits to Russia as junta chief, the first in June 2021 to attend a security conference, five months after seizing power in a coup. He visited twice in 2022 and again in March 2025 when he held formal talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

• Russia is hoping to open up opportunities in Myanmar for its energy companies. The two countries signed an agreement to construct a small-scale nuclear power plant in Myanmar when Min Aung Hlaing met Putin in 2025.

• Russia and Myanmar signed a memorandum on investment cooperation for the strategically located Dawei Special Economic Zone in February 2025, including the construction of a port and an oil refinery.

• Min Aung Hlaing’s latest trip includes a Myanmar-Russia business forum. Joining him will be the chief minister of the Tanintharyi region, where Dawei is located, and the head of Myanmar’s aerospace agency, according to state media.

• Defence ties have grown in recent years with Moscow providing army training and university scholarships to thousands of Myanmar soldiers, as well as selling arms to a military blacklisted by some Western countries.

• Russia also earlier this year said it would help to train Myanmar’s first cosmonaut.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by Martin Petty)