- Putin’s absence at the summit has been announced by the South African presidency, ending months of speculation
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement,” South Africa’s Presidency said on Wednesday.
“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit, but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister Mr [Sergey] Lavrov,” Vincent Magwenya, a Spokesperson for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement.
The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa will attend the summit, the presidency said.
BRICS, a bloc of emerging economic powers comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China was formed in 2019 as BRIC. South Africa joined the following year after an invitation from China, expanding the group.
Ethiopia, Iran and Argentina have also applied to join the bloc.
South Africa faced a dilemma in hosting the summit because, as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for alleged war crimes, it would theoretically be required to arrest him if he were to attend.
The ICC, based in The Hague, has accused Putin of war crimes over his role in the abduction and forced transport of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territory. The arrest warrant, issued in March, has significantly curbed the Russian leader’s ability to travel internationally.
Despite that, the Kremlin had pressured South Africa to ignore the warrant or to find a workaround solution that would have allowed Putin to attend the summit. Johannesburg had been at pains to explain to Moscow that there was no easy way to allow Putin to attend the BRICS summit without facing the risk of arrest.
Not only is South Africa a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the international court, but it also has incorporated the statute into South African law. Any move to avoid South Africa’s obligations by changing or repudiating the law would have to pass through the South African Parliament and could be overturned by the Constitutional Court.
South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile told South African media this month that his government hoped Putin would not attend. Mashatile said South Africa did not want to arrest Putin. “That’s why, for us, his not coming is the best solution,” Mashatile said.
“The Russians are not happy, though. They want him to come,” he said.
Mashatile said at the time that Ramaphosa was negotiating with Putin to dissuade him from attending.
“We want to show him the challenges that we face because we are part of the Rome Statute and we can’t wiggle out of this,” Mashatile said.
This week, Ramaphosa said that Moscow had made it clear to his office that Putin’s arrest would “be a declaration of war against Russia.”
Ramaphosa made the statement in a sworn affidavit to the Pretoria High Court in answer to an application by the opposition Democratic Alliance party that South Africa commit to arresting Putin should he arrive.
“Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting president would be a declaration of war,” Ramaphosa said. “It would be inconsistent with our Constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia.”
Ramaphosa said that he had constitutional obligations to protect South Africa’s sovereignty, peace and security and to promote the full rights of the South African people. Ramaphosa’s statement to the court made clear that South Africa was in confidential negotiations with the ICC, arguing that the country faced difficulties meeting its obligation to arrest Putin.
“The ICC itself has expressed concern over Russia’s nuclear threat, following the arrest warrant. South Africa has no capacity to declare or wage war with Russia. Nor does it wish to,” the president said.
Ramaphosa’s affidavit argued that the Democratic Alliance application was “vague” and “incompetent” and should be directed to the director of public prosecutions, not to the South African government. He also argued that the obligation to arrest Putin endangered an African initiative pushing for an end to the war in Ukraine.
The High Court on Tuesday ordered that the affidavits and other documents be published and is to rule on the opposition’s case Friday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked to comment on whether Russia had indeed warned about “a declaration of war,” told journalists Wednesday that “no such wording was used.”
“It is absolutely clear to everyone in this world what it means to attempt to encroach on the head of the Russian state, so no one here needs to explain anything,” Peskov added. He said that Putin would participate in the summit by videoconference.
Yet, in March, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, used this exact wording to describe how Moscow would treat any country’s decision to uphold the ICC warrant.
“Let’s imagine … the current head of a nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested,” Medvedev said in a video posted on Telegram. “What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation. And in that case, all our assets — all our missiles et cetera — would fly to the Bundestag, to the Chancellor’s office.”
South Africa has a checkered history with the ICC and was condemned by the international court as well as a South African court for not arresting Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2015, even though he had been charged with genocide. The South African government allowed al-Bashir to leave the country, where he had attended an African Union meeting, by private plane, defying court orders.
On several occasions in recent years, South Africa also has voiced an intention to withdraw from the ICC.
Written with reports from Washington Post, Al Jazeera, agency reports