State news agency RIA cited the press office of the Security Council as saying the trip would last until Feb. 28.

"During the visit, talks are planned on current issues of bilateral relations, including security and defense, as well as the development of cooperation in other areas of mutual interest," RIA reported.

Meanwhile, TASS state news agency cited the Council as saying that Shoigu would be accompanied by an interagency delegation.

TASS reported that according to the council, “the parties are also supposed to exchange views on international and regional issues”.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and subsequent punitive sanctions on Moscow by Kyiv's Western allies have shifted Putin's geopolitical interests toward Asia, increasing his promotion of ties with the region, Reuters reported.

Shoigu, who had been Russia's powerful defense minister from 2012 until Putin moved him in May of last year, has said the West had tried to use Ukraine to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia but had failed.

Indonesia said in October it wanted to join the BRICS group of major emerging economies, which accounts for 35 percent of global economic output, and which Russia has been heavily pushing to become a counterweight to the West.

Through an op-ed published in The Jakarta Post in February to commemorate 75 years of bilateral relations this year, Russian Ambassador Sergei Tolchenov said Moscow “appreciates Indonesia's balanced position on the Ukrainian crisis”.

As rotating president of the Group of 20 largest economies in 2022, Indonesia resisted Western pressure to ostracize Russia at the global forum. This year, however, that pressure seems to have fizzled as the United States makes inroads with Russia over the Ukraine question at the behest of its own allies.

Then-defense minister and president-elect Prabowo Subianto visited Russia in July last year, just a couple of months after Shoigu was reassigned to the National Security Council position.

Analysts suggest Prabowo met Putin to exercise the nation’s long-standing “free and active” foreign policy tradition. During his election campaign, Prabowo had argued that Indonesia needed to “rebalance” its foreign policy because it had become too pro-Western over the past few decades.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visited Russia in September 2024 for an economic forum where he spoke alongside Putin.

Shoigu is expected to pay a courtesy visit to Indonesia's Prabowo and Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin on Tuesday, official sources have confirmed.

Considered one of the architects of the Ukraine war, Shoigu is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, among other charges. (tjs)

Editor's Note: Updated at 10:00 a.m. on Feb. 25.