South Africa: Putin does not attend Brics summit

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will “by mutual agreement” not personally attend the Brics summit in South Africa – the South African presidency announced this Wednesday. Instead, Russia will be represented by its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Despite an international arrest warrant, the head of the Kremlin was invited to the meeting of the emerging Brics countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Summit will take place in Johannesburg from August 22nd to 24th.

South Africa had signed the statutes of the International Criminal Court, but has not yet made a clear statement on the procedure.

South Africa’s President Ramaphosa announced on Tuesday that Russia had warned South Africa that arresting Putin would be tantamount to a “declaration of war.” South Africa therefore has “obvious problems with the implementation of a request for the arrest and extradition of President Putin”. Ramaphosa had previously left open for months whether South Africa would actually arrest Putin.

He could not answer to the South African people for “taking the risk of war with Russia”. Rather, he is committed to the “protection of national sovereignty, peace and security” in South Africa.

South Africa had already come under criticism in 2015 when the country refused to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and extradite him to the International Criminal Court.

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