Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping are to meet in Uzbekistan at the end of next week, according to a senior Russian diplomat. Russia’s ambassador in Beijing, Andrei Denisov, told journalists on Wednesday that the two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the TASS news agency reported on Wednesday. The SCO meeting is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, September 15-16. It will be the first face-to-face summit of the group’s leaders since the start of the coronavirus pa…