As international world leaders arrive in Glasgow for the second day of COP26, Russia announced it would be "impossible" for President Vladimir Putin to be among them.
The Kremlin has said that Putin will not attend COP26, but will deliver a recorded message to the climate conference instead.
On October 20, the Kremlin announced the no-show without giving a reason, saying that climate change was an "important" priority to Russia and "one of our foreign policy's most important priorities".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "It is impossible to join (the meetings) in Glasgow through a video conference.
"Still, a conference on forestry and land use management will be held in Glasgow as part of the climate change summit, and the president has already recorded an address to the participants of that conference."
Putin also skipped the G20 summit in Rome last weekend, but appeared over a video link.
Xi Jinping, the president of China, is also not attending and will address the conference in the form of a written statement.
He was originally slated to appear by video link. Xi has not left China since the Covid pandemic began.
China and Russia are the top and the fourth world's highest greenhouse gas emitters, respectively.
Other world leaders skipping the UN conference include the Pope and the presidents of Iran, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Japan and Turkey.
The Queen, who has been ordered to rest for two weeks, cancelled an appearance at COP26.
