Russia’s president Vladimir Putin will not be attending the BRICS summit in South Africa in August 2023.

According to a press statement (Jul. 19) by South Africa’s presidency, Russia will be represented by its foreign minister Sergey Lavrov instead.

BRICS is an acronym for the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The leaders of other nations will be attending the event, which is the first in-person summit for the grouping after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Months of deliberation

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, expressed South Africa’s readiness to host the summit, which will be held in Johannesburg from Aug. 22 to 24.

The country faced a tricky situation due to its membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC), making it obliged to arrest Putin if he steps foot there, Reuters reported.

In March 2023, ICC issued arrest warrants against him and Russian politician Maria Lvova-Belova for allegedly committing the war crime of unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

This led to months of conflicting statements among South African politicians on whether the country should arrest Putin if he attended the summit in-person, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, Moscow has dismissed the arrest warrant, noting that it was not applicable as Russia is not a signatory of ICC’s Rome Statute, Reuters reported.

Ramaphosa consulted with leaders of political parties of BRICS countries on Jul. 18, in which by “mutual agreement” they agreed on Putin’s non-attendance.

Putin will be attending the summit virtually via a video call, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as cited by the Associated Press (AP).

“Declaration of war”

The announcement by South Africa comes a day after Ramaphosa was quoted saying in a court document that an arrest of Putin would be regarded as a “declaration of war”.

“I must highlight, for the sake of transparency, that South Africa has obvious problems with executing a request to arrest and surrender President Putin.”

“Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting president would be a declaration of war.”

Ramaphosa added that it would be “inconsistent with [their] Constitution" to risk waging war against Russia.

The confidential affidavit, which was made public, also came as local opposition party Democratic Alliance pushed the incumbents to pledge before the High Court that they would arrest Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Peskov later denied that there was any indication of a “declaration of war”, AP reported.

“In this world, it is absolutely clear to everyone what an attempt to encroach on the head of the Russian state means. So there is no need to explain anything to anyone here.”

South Africa’s position

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and Russia share strong political ties due to their relations during the Cold War era, according to CNN.

The state has also maintained its neutrality in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and refused to condemn it.

In turn, it has faced criticism from the West for its friendliness to Russia, Reuters reported.

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Top image via Getty Images - AFP/SPUTNIK/Gavriil Grigorov