Putin faces possible arrest in South Africa if he attends Brics Summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin could be arrested if he attends an BRICS economic summit being hosted in South Africa in August.

A special government commission has concluded that the country has no choice but to arrest Vladimir Putin if he sets foot on South Africa.

The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin’s arrest on the 16th of March for the illegal deportation of at least 100 Ukrainian children.

Despite attempts to ignore the order, South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa is under pressure to execute the arrest warrant.

Pretoria is a signatory to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC and having written its obligations into the country’s constitution.

The African power, instead, has urged the Russian leader who has been declared wanted by the ICC to join the bloc meeting via Zoom.

South Africa is one of Russia’s strongest allies in Africa. It is suffering from a debilitating energy crisis and is hoping Russia will build a new nuclear power station to solve the problem.

South Africa said last week it has no plans to withdraw from the ICC, contrary to Ramaphosa’s recent statements.

Ramaphosa’s office blamed his controversial comments criticizing the ICC and threatening to quit the court in The Hague on a “communication error” during a media briefing.

In its March 17 warrant, the Netherlands-based international court wrote that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for child abductions in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has dismissed the warrant as meaningless, given that Russia does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction.