The visit to South Africa planned for August would pose an enormous risk for Russia’s president. The situation is also extremely delicate for the government in Pretoria, which has so far been at Putin’s side. Would she dare to oppose the International Criminal Court?
From
Bernd Dorries, Cape Town
August is not one of the best months to travel in South Africa, it is winter, it rains and storms, there can be snow in the high areas, even in the relatively low-lying capital Pretoria the temperature can drop into the single digits at night. So it may be that the Kremlin’s travel agency is advising President Vladimir Putin to bring a pair of long johns with him in case he leaves for the Brics summit in South Africa in August. The abbreviation stands for the club of countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which got together in 2006 as a kind of counterweight to the EU and the USA. Every year the member states meet for a summit, declarations are read out and now and then imperialism is castigated. Nothing that would dramatically change the course of the world.