Putin’s absence at the summit has been announced by the South African presidency, ending months of speculation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, South Africa’s presidency said on Wednesday.

“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,” Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement.

South Africa faced a dilemma in hosting the summit because, as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for alleged war crimes, it would theoretically be required to arrest him if he were to attend.

The dilemma led to intense debate in South Africa and the West about whether the warrant would be executed, given South Africa’s stance of neutrality on the war in Ukraine and Pretoria’s historic ties to the Kremlin.

In 2015, South Africa also failed to arrest then-Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who was also the subject of an ICC warrant.

The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa will attend the summit, the presidency said.

BRICS, a bloc of emerging economic powers comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China was formed in 2019 as BRIC. South Africa joined the following year after an invitation from China, expanding the group.

Ethiopia, Iran and Argentina have also applied to join the bloc.

mediabiasfactcheck.com/al-jazeera/

    • Rhombus Ticks@universeodon.com
      14·
      1 year ago

      @C4RCOSA@lemmygrad.ml

      It has the same thing to do with two fascist dictatorships aligning with three democracies who have no sense of self worth or dignity desperate to pretend to be world powers by acting as henchmen for bullies…

      Or the same thing witb people so desperate for purpose that they defend war criminals dredging up the faults of a filth capitalist exploitation while both their buddy countries are guilty of that but worse

      You not only lack moral authority defending fascists you actually seem to lack a basic understanding of the concept of moral authority

      Ergo you are no longer comedically amusing as a Baghdad Bob but openly pathetic and pitiable

      Adieu