Vladimir Putin has been personally invited to attend the COP26 conference on climate change when it takes place in Glasgow later this year.
The controversial Russian president, who last visited the UK in 2013, could be heading to Clydeside in November if the Kremlin agrees to the offer from Boris Johnson.
COP26 will be the largest gathering of world leaders since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and security across Scotland's largest city will be tight - particularly around the SEC, where the summit will take place.
The event is being organised by the UK Government and Johnson has ultimate say over who to invite to attend.
Also on the guest list for Glasgow is Chinese premier Xi Jinping, who last visited the UK in 2015.
The Sunday Times reported the invitations raise the prospect of Johnson holding the first face-to-face meeting with Putin since the UK accused Moscow of deploying the nerve agent novichok to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018.
COP26 is the largest summit the UK has ever hosted and takes place over the first two weeks in November. It was originally due to take place last year but was postponed due to the pandemic.
One diplomat told the paper that Xi is waiting to see if Putin will attend before he makes his decision.
"We will wait until the last minute, but I think if Putin goes, Xi will go. It is not polite to reject this invitation," the diplomat said.
They described the relationship between Russia and China as "like sex without the chemistry", with the two countries united in their dislike of the West.
Putin's possible visit to Scotland could prove controversial as it has long been suspected that operatives working on behalf of his government helped spread false information across social media around the time of the 2014 independence referendum - claims strongly denied by Russia.
Virtually every event of any significance in democratic politics in recent years has come accompanied with allegations and subsequent denials of Russian interference.
In the weeks after the 2014 referendum, baseless allegations of voting irregularities began to be shared on social media among certain pro-independence accounts.
It is thought many of these claims were first started by Russian troll farms.
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