Roving Periscope: Putin to skip BRICS Summit in SA, join only virtually
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: It was already in the air, particularly after the brief mutiny of the Wagner mercenary group last month. Russian President Vladimir Putin, against whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant in March on the Ukraine issue, will not attend the BRICS Summit in-person next month in South Africa, although participate in it virtually.
His problems have compounded since June. If he leaves Russia, he may face arrest in a foreign land or get toppled in a coup at home—or both!
The media reported on Thursday that he will be the only BRICS leader to attend the Summit virtually while all other leaders will join the event physically in South Africa.
“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the Summit but will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,” the South African President’s office said in a statement.
Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also confirmed that Putin will attend the event via video conferencing while Foreign Minister Lavrov will be present in person.
The move is seen as a major setback for Putin, who has touted his relations with the BRICS countries—Brazil, India, China, and South Africa– as evidence that US and European efforts to isolate him over the war in Ukraine have failed.
The ICC, at The Hague, had issued an arrest warrant for President Putin in March this year, linking him to the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children. Putin could be arrested under this warrant if he leaves Russian soil.
South Africa is also a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC and is bound by the court’s decisions. Pretoria already drew international criticism in 2015 when it refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant against then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during the African Summit.
To further complicate matters, South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, had asked a Pretoria court to force the government to arrest the Russian President if he attended the BRICS Summit.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya noted that the decision for Putin not to attend the BRICS Summit was made after “a series of consultations” that lasted until last night.
Amid speculations about his arrest, President Ramaphosa had said on Wednesday that any such attempts to arrest his Russian counterpart would be a “declaration of war” against Moscow.
He issued this warning in a court affidavit made public on Tuesday.
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 ICC 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 crimes of unlawful deportation of the population (children) and their transfer from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation after Moscow’s invasion began in February 2022.
President 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.
