Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the BRICS 2023 summit that is scheduled to take place in South Africa next month. South Africa’s presidency released a statement confirming the development. Instead of Putin, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will take part in BRICS 2023 summit. The host nation maintained that the decision has be taken after a mutual agreement.
Johannesburg has been under immense pressure due to the ICC warrant. Because South Africa is a member state of the International Criminal Court, it was obligated to arrest Putin had he attended the summit. In fact, a Reuters report had said that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had moved the ICC to exempt the country from executing the warrant. The International Criminal Court had issued a warrant against Putin for the alleged war crimes in Ukraine earlier this year. While Putin will skip the summit, other state heads of India, China and Brazil will attend the summit in August.
Since March when the warrant was issued, Russia has questioned its legality as it is not a signatory of the ICC. It has also said that any attempt or arresting Putin would seen as open declaration of war against Moscow. South Africa has so far maintained a neutral stand on the Russia-Ukraine war. But it has faced lot of criticism from the Western leaders for being friendly with Moscow.