South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the Brazil Russia India China South Africa summit scheduled to take place from the 22 – 24 August in Johannesburg.
According to Ramaphosa, Russia will be instead represented by Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, following mutual agreements.
Speculation on whether or not Putin would be attending the BRICS summit has been rife following a warrant of arrest which was this year issued by the International Criminal Court earlier this year, due to a violation of children’s rights (kidnapping).
With South Africa being a member of the ICC, all eyes were on the country on whether or not it would carry on and arrest Putin upon his arrival.
“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the Summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister, Mr. Sergey Lavrov,” read a statement from the South African Presidency.
“In due course, a comprehensive statement on the substantive issues to be covered at the Summit and other related foreign policy matters will be issued.
“President Ramaphosa is confident that the Summit will be a success and calls on the nation to extend the necessary hospitality to the many delegates who will arrive from various parts of the continent and the globe.”
Prior to this recent announcement, in an affidavit to the North Gauteng High Court, which Ramaphosa was on Tuesday compelled to make public said executing an arrest warrant from the ICC would spark a war with Russia.
In addition, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said everyone knows what would happen if they dared to execute the arrest warrant.
“Everyone in this world understands what an attempt against the head of the Russian State would mean. There is no need for any explanation here,” said Peskov.
