President Putin of Russia has finally decided to skip the BRICS’ summit in South Africa slated this August. This was disclosed on Wednesday by Mosco.
The Russian president will instead be represented by his foreign minister, Mr Sergey Lavrov. This was confirmed by the Kremlin’s spokesperson on Wednesday in a statement to Russian state media, Ria Novosti.
In the statement it was also confirmed that Putin, even though not attending in person, he will still have “full participation” in the summit. The summit is between 22 and 24 August.
Also, the South African government on the same Wednesday released a statement in which it announced that:
“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.”
However, Putin’s decision to stay away and not attend physically may not be unconnected with the arrest warrant issues by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against him.
President Putin was indicted by the ICJ in March 2023 for the obvious atrocities of his troops in Ukraine, and his alleged war crimes over the abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia.
The arrest warrant has been a major concern for both Presidents Putin and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, both of whom are members of the BRIC group and partners on the global stage.
South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court, and obligated to execute the arrest warrant issued against President Putin if he steps foot in South Africa.
BRICS is a global body comprising 5 countries who are partnering at the global stage for economic reasons. These countries include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The BRICS nation as they are usually called have been described as a group with the ambition of supplanting the US led world order. China is seen as the leader of the BRICS nation.
