BRICS Summit: ‘War, if Putin is arrested,” warns SA President Ramaphosa

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi: Amid speculations whether Vladimir Putin could be arrested upon his arrival in Johannesburg to participate in the BRICS Summit next month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that any such attempts to arrest his Russian counterpart would be a “declaration of war” against Moscow, the media reported on Wednesday.

He issued this warning in a court affidavit made public on Tuesday ahead of the  BRICS Summit scheduled in Johannesburg in late August to which President Putin has been invited. 

Ramaphosa was responding to a petition by South Africa’s largest opposition political party, the Democratic Alliance, that asked a court in Pretoria to force the government to arrest Putin if he attended the BRICS Summit.

South Africa will host the 15th BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Sandton, Johannesburg, from August 22 to 24. This will be the first in-person Summit to be held after 4 years, the last three being held under the chairmanship of Russia, India, and China in a virtual format because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC), at The Hague, had issued an arrest warrant against President Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in his office, whom it held allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, after Moscow’s invasion began in February 2022.

Since South Africa is a member of the ICC, it is legally obliged to arrest Putin when he is in the country.

“Russia has made it clear that arresting Putin would be a declaration of war,” Ramaphosa said in his affidavit.

“It would be inconsistent with our Constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia,” he added in the affidavit.

Ramaphosa argued that South Africa’s Bill of Rights required the government to protect and promote certain rights, including “the right to be free from all forms of violence.”

“An act that would be perceived as a declaration of war by Russia would be reckless,” he added.

Ramaphosa joined several African leaders last month in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and then with Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, to discuss a path to ending the war.

Last week, South Africa’s Deputy President, Paul Mashatile, said that his country had raised the possibility of holding the Summit virtually or moving it to China, but both options were rejected by South Africa’s BRICS partners.

Mashatile added that Russian officials also resisted a suggestion of President Putin’s foreign minister attend the Summit in his place.