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”.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
Riga There had been speculation for months about the possible consequences of a trip, but now the international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin is having an effect: Putin will not come to the Brics summit in South Africa. This was announced by the host country South Africa on Wednesday. The decision was made unanimously, it said.
At the end of August in Johannesburg, delegations from the up-and-coming Brics emerging countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will meet at the Brics summit. The Russian delegation is now to be led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead of Putin. According to the Kremlin, Putin will also take part in the summit in video format.
>> Read here: baerbock-Visit doesn’t let South Africa back away from Russia
South Africa invited Putin even though the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an international arrest warrant against the Kremlin chief in March. As a member of the Rome Statute of Court, the country would have to arrest the Russian President upon his arrival. The pressure on the South African government to implement the arrest warrant was correspondingly high.
However, the country’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, had asked the ICC not to have to arrest Putin because that would be “tantamount to a declaration of war”. The Kremlin then made it clear publicly that the country had not been threatened. Putin’s rejection frees the South African government from a foreign policy dilemma.
Putin does not travel to the Brics summit
The ICC accuses the Russian President of being responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. For this reason, there is another arrest warrant against Putin’s child rights commissioner Maria Lwowa-Belowa.
Baerbock denounces Russian war crimes
The fact that Putin publicly declared shortly after the aborted uprising by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin at the end of June that his mercenary group had been financed by the Kremlin could also make it easier to prove the connection between the Russian leadership and other war crimes committed by Wagner militias.
>> Read here: How Putin could be convicted of war crimes
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) only accused the kidnapping of Ukrainian children to Russia on Tuesday. She also called for international efforts before the UN Security Council to bring the affected children back to their parents.
Baerbock also demanded that Putin be held accountable for the “primal crime” of aggressive war against Ukraine. She also supports the proposal to hold the Russian leadership accountable in a special tribunal for the aggressive war against Ukraine.
Great Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also found clear words before the Security Council. “Russia is trying to erase Ukrainian identity and cultural history and is using children as a weapon of war,” he said.
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