Winter Olympics 2022: Which world leaders are coming?

Retired cross-country Olympic skier Noah Hoffman warns the IOC has been a ‘failure’ in protecting athletes.

The U.S., Britain and a handful of others aren’t sending dignitaries to the Beijing Winter Games as part of a diplomatic boycott, but the Chinese capital is still attracting an array of world leaders for Friday’s opening ceremony.

A look at who is attending, who is staying away and why:

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FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin enter a hall for talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File)

— RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin is meeting Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping ahead of the opening ceremony, underscoring closer ties between Beijing and Moscow as they both face Western criticism and pressure.

— EGYPT AND SERBIA: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic have growing frictions with the West over their authoritarian policies and human rights records. Both leaders have gravitated toward China. Vucic called Xi his "brother" for supplying Serbia with respirators and vaccines.

— SAUDI ARABIA, QATAR, UAE: Beijing's Gulf relations are above all about energy. China is Saudi Arabia's largest buyer of oil and a major customer for Qatar's natural gas. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto leader, is appearing at the Winter Games as investors and some governments signal warming relations after the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

— CENTRAL ASIA: The leaders of all five former Soviet republics in Central Asia are heading to Beijing, highlighting the region’s increasingly close ties with China. Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Zhaparov pushed last