Putin to skip next month’s summit in South Africa due to ICC arrest warrant

The office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that Vladimir Putin would not be attending the BRICS economic summit in Johannesburg next month.

As a result of this ruling, South Africa will not have to decide whether or not to comply with an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for the Russian leader.

Despite having strongly hinted that it would not carry out the arrest order, South Africa is obligated by the treaty that established the ICC to arrest Putin.

But Ramaphosa’s announcement with Putin on Wednesday means South Africa can sidestep the issue altogether.

Ramaphosa’s office stated that he and Putin “mutually agreed” for Putin to skip the summit. Instead, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the meeting from August 22-24 on the country’s behalf.

South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India, and China form the BRICS group of countries. Before the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March, South Africa asked the leaders of the other four countries to attend the summit.

Months of guesswork as to whether or not Putin would visit South Africa have been put to rest by the announcement. Since being accused for war crimes for the abduction of children from Ukraine, Putin has not visited any country that is a signatory to the ICC treaty.