Russian President Vladimir Putin will not travel to South Africa for the BRICS summit in August, the government there announced. Would he want to avoid such an arrest?
South Africa should have arrested Putin upon entry according to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). “By mutual agreement” Putin will not come to the meeting, said a spokesman for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
South Africa is hosting the upcoming BRICS Summit. Their heads of state are expected to attend from August 22 to 24. As a member of the ICC, South Africa would therefore be obliged to arrest Putin if he appeared at the summit.
According to a document released by a local court on Tuesday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the ICC not to arrest Putin, as doing so would amount to “a declaration of war”. Russia will now be represented at the summit by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Ramaphosa’s spokesman said. With this, South Africa put an end to months of speculation.
Putin sees The Hague as a war criminal
The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, has charged Putin with war crimes for the alleged kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Moscow denies the allegations.
The Kremlin takes position
The Russian side stressed in a statement that the decision was made in “mutual consultation”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Russia had not threatened South African authorities in this regard – they had only “warned of possible consequences”. “No one has made anything clear to anyone,” Peskow said. “Everyone in this world knows the consequences of an attack on the Russian head of state,” the Interfax agency quoted Putin’s right-hand man as saying. “That’s why no one has to explain anything,” concludes Peskov.
Source: Krone
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